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Sestertius - Vespasian PAX AVGVSTI S C, Pax
| Issuer | Roman Imperial Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 72-73 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 18.9 g |
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| Obverse description | Laureate bust of Vespasian facing right, with draped shoulder visible, rendered in the realist portraiture style characteristic of Flavian imperial coinage. The emperor's effigy occupies the central field, with the characteristic thick neck and strong facial features associated with Vespasian's official portraiture. A circular Latin legend surrounds the bust, partially worn but consistent with the imperial titulature of the fourth consulship. The coin displays a pronounced green patina with areas of olive and brown, typical of well-circulated bronze sestertii of the Flavian period. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | IMP CAES VESPAS AVG P M TR P P P COS IIII (Translation: Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Pater Patriae, Consul Quartum. Supreme commander (Imperator) Caesar Vespasian, emperor (Augustus), high priest, holder of tribunician power, father of the nation, consul for the fourth time.) |
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| Additional information |
The PAX AVGVSTI sestertii of Vespasian belong to the ideological reconstruction following the Year of the Four Emperors and the Jewish War — Rome's most catastrophic sequence of internal violence since the civil wars of the late Republic. Vespasian needed the peace message badly; he had taken power through force, not succession, and his legitimacy rested partly on convincing the senate and public that the convulsions of 68–69 AD were finished. RIC II.1 380 falls in the consolidated emission of 72–73, by which point the Flavian hold on the principate had stabilized enough that the propaganda was less urgent than in the immediately post-war issues.