Aureus - Domitian IMP XIIII COS XII CENS P P P, Minerva

Domitian's censorial title — CENS P P P, Censor Perpetuus — appears on this issue as part of his aggressive campaign to institutionalize permanent censorial power, something no emperor before him had claimed outright. He assumed the role in 85 AD and held it until his assassination in 96, using it to regulate public morals, purge the Senate, and tighten control over Roman social order. The Senate's damnatio memoriae after his death erased his name from public inscriptions across the empire, making surviving aureii from his reign that retain sharp legend detail particularly significant to the documentary record.