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Aureus - Vitellius, Aulus Vitellius Germanicus, and Vitellia LIBERI IMP GERM AVG
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
|---|---|
| Year | 69 |
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| Value | 1 Aureus = 25 Denarii |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Confronting draped busts of Vitellius's son and daughter — his son to the left and his daughter (Vitellia) to the right — presented face-to-face on a single flan in a dynastic composition. The busts are rendered in a youthful, idealized style, each draped at the shoulder. The reverse legend LIBERI IMP GERM AVG is distributed around the field, identifying the subjects as the children of the emperor. This type represents a rare dynastic statement on Roman imperial gold coinage during Vitellius's brief reign in AD 69. |
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| Mintage | ND (69) |
| Additional information |
Vitellius held power for barely eight months in 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors — and died at the hands of Vespasian's soldiers before the year was out. This aureus, depicting his children under the legend LIBERI IMP GERM AVG, was a deliberate dynastic statement: Vitellius was advertising succession, trying to project the kind of stability his reign conspicuously lacked. The gesture was premature. His son Petronianus and daughter were still minors, and the dynasty he was promoting would never materialize.
RIC I#100 is among the rarer Vitellian gold issues precisely because the mint's output was cut short by the civil war itself.