Hadrian's third consulship, held in 119–120, came during his first full year of consolidated power following a contentious accession shadowed by the execution of four senior senators — an event Hadrian blamed on the Senate itself, though few believed him. The Jupiter reverse on sestertii of this period was not incidental: aligning the new emperor with the king of the gods was a deliberate response to that legitimacy problem, pressed in bronze for the widest possible circulation audience.
RIC II.3 #249 belongs to the revised Mattingly-Sydenham corpus corrected by the second edition, which significantly reorganized Hadrianic bronze attributions from earlier catalogues.
Hadrian's third consulship, held in 119–120, came during his first full year of consolidated power following a contentious accession shadowed by the execution of four senior senators — an event Hadrian blamed on the Senate itself, though few believed him. The Jupiter reverse on sestertii of this period was not incidental: aligning the new emperor with the king of the gods was a deliberate response to that legitimacy problem, pressed in bronze for the widest possible circulation audience.
RIC II.3 #249 belongs to the revised Mattingly-Sydenham corpus corrected by the second edition, which significantly reorganized Hadrianic bronze attributions from earlier catalogues.