Dupondius - Nero PACE P R TERRA MARIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT S C

The legend on this coin references the closing of the Temple of Janus, a ritual act performed only when Rome was at total peace — a condition so rare that it had occurred just twice in the preceding seven centuries. Nero's closure, likely in 66 AD following the settlement with Parthia over Armenia, was a calculated piece of political theater. The Parthian wars had dragged on for years under the general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, whose diplomatic and military maneuvering finally produced a compromise that both empires could accept without conceding defeat.

Corbulo was ordered to commit suicide by Nero in 67 AD, just months after the peace he engineered was being commemorated in bronze across the empire.