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As - Augustus and Numa Pompilius CN PISO L SVRDIN C PLOT RVF
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
|---|---|
| Year | 16 BC - 15 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 6.1 g |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Bare, bearded and diademed head of Numa Pompilius, the legendary second king of Rome, facing right, rendered in an archaic portrait style deliberately evoking Rome's distant regal past. The portrait is encircled by a Latin legend naming the three moneyers responsible for the issue: Cnaeus Calpurnius Piso, Lucius Naevius Surdinus, and Caius Plotius Rufus. A linear border frames the design. The pairing of Numa with Augustus on this as reflects Augustan propaganda associating the princeps with Rome's foundational religious and civic traditions. |
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| Additional information |
This as belongs to a short-lived experiment in senatorial coinage: between roughly 23 and 4 BC, Augustus permitted a board of tresviri monetales — junior magistrates from old Republican families — to sign coins with their own names, a deliberate nod to Republican tradition at a moment when the princeps was carefully disguising the autocratic nature of his new order. The magistrates named here, Cn. Piso, L. Surdinus, and C. Plotius Rufus, held the position around 16–15 BC. The invocation of Numa Pompilius, Rome's legendary second king and founder of its religious institutions, was a pointed choice during a period when Augustus was simultaneously reviving priesthoods and positioning himself as restorer of Roman piety.