Sestertius - Nero DECVRSIO S C

The DECVRSIO type belongs to a concentrated burst of ambitious bronze coinage Nero issued from the Rome mint in the mid-60s AD, a period when he was simultaneously draining the treasury on the Domus Aurea and debasing the silver coinage. The sestertius suffered no such debasement — orichalcum and bronze denominations held their metallurgical standards — but the iconographic program grew noticeably self-aggrandizing. The decursio, a formal cavalry parade exercise performed by the emperor, was a calculated assertion of military competence from a ruler whose generals were actively fighting wars he never personally approached.