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 - Vitellius VICTORIA AVG S C, Victory
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
|---|---|
| Year | 69 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Variable alignment ↺ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of Emperor Vitellius facing right, rendered with robust, naturalistic portraiture characteristic of the Year of the Four Emperors. The emperor's thick neck, fleshy features, and short-cropped hair are depicted with individualized realism. The obverse legend encircles the bust within a beaded border, identifying Vitellius by his full imperial titulature. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | A VITELLIVS GERMAN IMP AVG P M TR P (Translation: Aulus Vitellius Germanicus, supreme commander, emperor, high priest, tribunician power.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
Vitellius held power for less than eight months in 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors — before being dragged through Rome and executed by supporters of Vespasian. His bronze coinage was struck at Rome during this window, and the VICTORIA legend was almost certainly propagandistic cover for a reign that had just won a civil war at Bedriacum rather than any foreign enemy. RIC I 142 is among the more obtainable of his sestertii, though the type as a whole is scarce relative to the major Julio-Claudian issues simply because the mint had fewer than thirty weeks to produce it.