Struck under the moneyer Publius Petronius Turpilianus, one of the tresviri monetales appointed during Augustus's reorganization of the mint at Rome in the late 19s BC. The gens Petronia had direct mythological stakes in the Tarpeia legend — the treacherous Vestal who, by some accounts, was herself a Petronia — making Turpilianus's choice of reverse type a pointed piece of family propaganda rather than a neutral historical scene.
Augustus permitted the tresviri to retain their traditional type-selection privileges, unusual given his otherwise tight control over imperial imagery. This coin sits in that narrow window of negotiated autonomy.
Struck under the moneyer Publius Petronius Turpilianus, one of the tresviri monetales appointed during Augustus's reorganization of the mint at Rome in the late 19s BC. The gens Petronia had direct mythological stakes in the Tarpeia legend — the treacherous Vestal who, by some accounts, was herself a Petronia — making Turpilianus's choice of reverse type a pointed piece of family propaganda rather than a neutral historical scene.
Augustus permitted the tresviri to retain their traditional type-selection privileges, unusual given his otherwise tight control over imperial imagery. This coin sits in that narrow window of negotiated autonomy.