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Sestertius - Domitian S C
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
|---|---|
| Year | 85 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Sestertius = 1/4 Denarius |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Laureate bust of Domitian facing right, draped on the left shoulder, rendered in high relief in the bold Flavian style. The emperor's effigy displays a strongly modelled profile with characteristically fleshy features. The encircling legend reads IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XI CENS PER P P, distributed around the field from lower left to lower right. The portrait conveys imperial authority with confident, naturalistic detail typical of Roman official coinage of the Flavian period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XI CENS PER P P (Translation: Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus, Consul Undecimum, Censor Perpetuus, Pater Patriae. Supreme commander (Imperator), Caesar, Domitian, emperor (Augustus), conqueror of the Germans, consul for the eleventh time, censor for life, father of the nation.) |
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| Additional information |
Domitian's sestertii of 85 AD were struck during a period when the emperor was actively consolidating his autocratic style, having assumed the perpetual censorship that same year — a move that gave him sweeping control over public morals, senatorial membership, and the equestrian order. The SC formula carried less symbolic independence than it once had; under Domitian, the Senate's nominal authority over base-metal coinage was increasingly a constitutional fiction.
RIC II.1 402 is part of the substantial revision of Domitian's coinage undertaken by Carradice and Buttrey, which significantly reorganized and renumbered issues previously catalogued under the older RIC II.