Obverse: Laureate bust of the Emperor Hadrian, inscr. [IMP] CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS [AVG]
Reverse: Concordia seated, right arm holding out a patera, left arm resting on a statuette of the goddess Spes. PM TR P COS III

This coin can be very securely dated to AD 117, the year of Hadrian’s ascension to the Imperial Purple. After the unexpected death of Emperor Trajan following his Parthian campaign, Hadrian was appointed emperor in a turbulent political environment. Trajan’s latest additions to the Empire, in Armenia and Parthia, showed severe signs of unrest. A timely strategic retreat, although unpopular with the militaristic society of Rome, showed great statesmanship and promise in such a young Emperor. Hadrian’s ascent to the throne is a question of political intrigue and cunning machinations. Plotina, the wife of Trajan, was greatly involved in the late emperor’s death – she seemingly poisoned her husband as part of a plot against him. On August 10, AD 117, Trajan’s will was made public, in which the secret adoption of Hadrian as Trajan’s successor just the night before was revealed. Amongst the confusion and outrage of the Senate at such convenient and improbable circumstances, Hadrian responded with composure and a veiled threat, assuring the Roman Senate that the military had hailed him as imperator, supreme commander, and he could not refuse their will.

This coin is a wonderful example of a denarius, a silver coin weighing one eighty-fourth of a Roman pound (3.9 grams). A denarius was worth four sestertii, and one twenty-fifth of an aureus, the gold coin and most valuable currency denomination in the Roman Empire. The denarius was an important coin in the Roman world. A legionary’s daily wage consisted of a single denarius. A denarius was the average salary of a skilled worker or artesan’s daily toil. The average roman citizen would be exposed to the denarius as the highest form of currency. The aureus, the gold coin, would have been far too precious and impractical to spend, and out of reach for the majority of the people of Rome.

The obverse of this coin depicts Hadrian’s profile, facing right. He wears a laurel wreath, symbol of glory and wisdom, bestowed upon the commanding general’s head by his army upon triumph. His body bears no cloak or tunic. Hadrian is depicted with a beard, an innovative style for a roman emperor, and one which would become his signature look. Hadrian’s beard sought to imitate Greek fashion, of which he was an avid adherent. His love of Greek culture brought him the nickname ‘graeculus’, the little Greek, amongst friends and subjects alike. The inscription on the coin reads imperator, a military title which is the origin of emperor; Caesar, the surname of the Roman Imperial family; Trajan Hadrianus; his name; and Augustus, title appointed to Roman emperors by the Senate.

The reverse of the coin shows the goddess Concordia, goddess of peace and amicability, sitting on a throne draped in a tunic. She holds in her right hand a patera, a wide shallow ritual bowl without handles used in sacrificial ceremonies. Typically the patera was filled with wine or milk, which is then poured upon the heads of the victims or on the altar itself shortly before the sacrifice. Concordia rest her left hand on a statuette of the goddess Spes. Spes, meaning hope, is a divinity which was venerated since the inception of the Roman Republic. She is the origin of a famous roman proverb which has persevered into modern day Italy, which recites ‘Hope is the last to die’. This is in reference to the myth of Pandora’s Box, and its only remaining contents, hope, which was the last and indomitable resource humans have to battle the terrors unleashed upon the world. The inscription lists the titles awarded the Roman emperors. P M stands for pontifex maximus, ‘highest priest’, a title which today is held by the Pope. TR P, tribunicia potestate, means ‘tribune of the people’, an administrative representative role. C O S III refers to Hadrian’s third consular year and allows the precise dating of this coin.