Denarius - Augustus IMP X ACT, Apollo

The IMP X tribunician dating places this issue squarely in the years surrounding Augustus's settlement of the East and his return from campaigns in Gaul and Spain — a period when Apollo imagery carried pointed political weight. Augustus had claimed Apollo as his personal divine patron since before Actium, and the god's prominence on the coinage intensified after 28 BC with the dedication of the Temple of Apollo Palatinus, built adjacent to Augustus's own house on the Palatine Hill. The temple housed the Sibylline Books and functioned as a calculated fusion of religious authority and imperial prestige.

RIC 171A is among the Lugdunum mint issues of this period, struck under the authority of the reorganized western mint after Rome itself largely ceased silver production.