Sestertius - Hadrian RELIQVA VETERA HS NOVIES MILL ABOLITA S C

In 118 AD, Hadrian made one of the most dramatic fiscal gestures in Roman imperial history: he cancelled debts owed to the imperial treasury amounting to 900 million sesterces, publicly burning the records in Trajan's Forum. The legend on this sestertius commemorates precisely that act. It was a calculated political move executed within months of his accession, designed to neutralize senatorial and provincial resentment toward a reign that had begun under a cloud of disputed succession and the execution of four senior senators.