Aureus - Domitian GERMANICVS COS XVII, Minerva

Domitian's obsessive identification with Minerva was not merely iconographic — he considered her his personal divine protector and maintained a shrine to her in his bedroom. The COS XVII dating places this aureus in the final months of his reign before his assassination on 18 September 96 AD, carried out by a palace conspiracy that included members of his own household staff. The Senate's subsequent damnatio memoriae order saw his name chiseled from public inscriptions across the empire.

RIC II.1 #775 is among the last aurei struck under his authority at Rome.