The FELIC AVG reverse type — invoking Felicitas, the personification of prosperity and good fortune — appeared early in Hadrian's reign as part of a deliberate propaganda campaign to distinguish his rule from Trajan's militarism. Hadrian had controversially abandoned Trajan's Mesopotamian conquests almost immediately upon taking power in 117, and these early issues were instrumental in reframing imperial success around peace, stability, and abundance rather than territorial expansion.
RIC II.3 #208 falls within the first major reorganization of Hadrianic coinage, datable to his third consulship.
The FELIC AVG reverse type — invoking Felicitas, the personification of prosperity and good fortune — appeared early in Hadrian's reign as part of a deliberate propaganda campaign to distinguish his rule from Trajan's militarism. Hadrian had controversially abandoned Trajan's Mesopotamian conquests almost immediately upon taking power in 117, and these early issues were instrumental in reframing imperial success around peace, stability, and abundance rather than territorial expansion.
RIC II.3 #208 falls within the first major reorganization of Hadrianic coinage, datable to his third consulship.