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Sestertius - Vespasian PAX AVGVSTI S C, Pax
| Issuer | Roman Imperial Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 71 |
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| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Vespasian facing right, portrayed with realistic, mature features characteristic of Flavian portraiture. The emperor's effigy is rendered with a short neck and slight drapery at the truncation of the bust. The encircling legend is struck in large, clear capital letters along the outer border, reading IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG P M T P P P COS III. A beaded border frames the entire design. |
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| Obverse lettering | IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG P M T P P P COS III (Translation: Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Pater Patriae, Consul Tertium. Supreme commander (Imperator) Caesar Vespasian, emperor (Augustus), high priest, holder of tribunician power, father of the nation, consul for the third time.) |
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Struck in 71 AD, the year following Vespasian's consolidation of power after the catastrophic civil wars of 69 — the Year of the Four Emperors — this issue belongs to a programmatic early campaign to legitimize a new dynasty with no hereditary claim to the throne. The Pax coinage was not incidental; it was deliberate political architecture, tying Vespasian's name directly to the peace he had restored after Galba, Otho, and Vitellius had torn the empire apart in eighteen months.
The fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD under Titus added a military dimension to that peace narrative that Rome exploited aggressively in its mint output throughout 71.