Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Sestertius - Nero DECVRSIO S C
| Issuer | Roman Imperial Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 62-68 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Sestertius = 1/4 Denarius |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse depicts Nero bare-headed and cuirassed, mounted on a prancing horse moving to the right, his military cloak (paludamentum) billowing dramatically behind him as he couches a spear. Flanking the emperor, a mounted soldier rides to the left in the foreground and another behind, each carrying a vexillum (military standard) over his shoulder, forming a formal cavalry exercise (decursio) composition. The scene commemorates the imperial military review, a ceremonial display of equestrian prowess associated with the Roman army. The exergue and field carry the abbreviated legend DECVRSIO and the senatorial authorization mark S C (Senatus Consultum). The composition is rendered with vigorous movement and dynamic spatial arrangement typical of Neronian large bronze coinage. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The DECVRSIO type records a military exercise — a cavalry parade drill — performed by Nero himself, almost certainly staged as propaganda following the early years of his reign when cultivating martial credibility was politically essential for an emperor with no genuine military record. Nero never commanded a campaign in person. The sestertius did some of the work his biography could not.
RIC I 172 belongs to the Rome mint output of Nero's middle-to-late reign, a period when the sestertius series reached an artistic peak under skilled engravers whose work would not be matched again until Trajan.