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Denarius LIB AVG LEG III, Africa
| Issuer | Lucius Clodius Macer |
|---|---|
| Year | 68 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Draped bust of Africa facing right, personified as a female figure wearing the characteristic elephant-skin head-dress, the trunk visible above the forehead — a well-established iconographic attribute identifying the African province. The portrait is rendered in the standard Roman republican-influenced style, with the legend encircling the bust within a beaded border. The die work, though provincial in character, reflects the conventions of the Macrian military mint active during the Year of the Four Emperors. |
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| Mintage | ND (68) |
| Additional information |
Lucius Clodius Macer, legate of Africa Proconsularis, struck this denarius in open revolt against Nero in 68 AD — one of the few provincial governors to issue silver coinage entirely outside Rome's minting authority. His issues were produced to pay the Legio III Augusta, the legion garrisoning Africa, whose loyalty he needed to control the grain supply to Rome. That leverage was his only real weapon; he never marched on the capital.
Galba had him executed before the year was out. The series is small, the types numerous relative to surviving volume, and RIC I records only a handful of discrete issues from what was clearly a brief, improvised military mint.