Aureus - Domitian TR P COS VII DES VIII P P

Struck in 81 AD, the year Domitian acceded following the death of his brother Titus, this aureus dates to his first months as emperor. The tribunician and consular dating places it firmly in that transitional moment before Domitian's administration consolidated its distinctive — and eventually brutal — character. He would go on to reign for fifteen years before his assassination in 96 AD prompted the Senate to order a comprehensive damnatio memoriae, destroying inscriptions and portraits across the empire. Coins from his earliest issues largely escaped systematic destruction, having already dispersed into circulation well beyond Rome.