Struck in 73 AD, this aureus was issued when Titus held tribunician power jointly with his father Vespasian — a constitutional arrangement Vespasian used deliberately to signal the succession and bind the Flavian dynasty's legitimacy to an office that had been, since Augustus, the cornerstone of imperial authority. The issue predates Titus's sole reign by six years, placing it firmly within the period when he was also commanding the Praetorian Guard, a concentration of power that made some senators deeply uneasy.
RIC II.1 #555 is relatively scarce in the series, reflecting the lower overall aureus output of the early Flavian period compared to the inflationary emissions of the late Julio-Claudians.
Struck in 73 AD, this aureus was issued when Titus held tribunician power jointly with his father Vespasian — a constitutional arrangement Vespasian used deliberately to signal the succession and bind the Flavian dynasty's legitimacy to an office that had been, since Augustus, the cornerstone of imperial authority. The issue predates Titus's sole reign by six years, placing it firmly within the period when he was also commanding the Praetorian Guard, a concentration of power that made some senators deeply uneasy.
RIC II.1 #555 is relatively scarce in the series, reflecting the lower overall aureus output of the early Flavian period compared to the inflationary emissions of the late Julio-Claudians.