Aureus - Hadrian COS III, Roma

Hadrian's third consulship, held in 119 AD, was technically long past by the time this coin was struck nearly a decade later — he retained the COS III title as a permanent honorific rather than an active office. The dating to 128–129 places this issue during his return to Rome after his second great eastern tour, a journey that had consumed most of the previous four years and taken him through Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Judaea, the last of which was already simmering toward the Bar Kokhba revolt that would erupt within three years.

Roma as a reverse type carried particular resonance at this moment: Hadrian had just refounded the city of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina.