Aureus - Domitian COS VII DES VIII P P

Struck in 81 AD, the year Domitian succeeded his brother Titus, this aureus dates to the very opening of a reign that would last fifteen years before ending in palace assassination. The consular and designate titles in the obverse legend — COS VII, DES VIII — place it precisely within the first months: Domitian held his seventh consulship and was already designated for his eighth, a calendar detail that tightly brackets the issue to late 81. He would go on to hold the consulship seventeen times total, an accumulation his senatorial critics read as monarchical theater rather than civic honor.