Obverse | Side portrait of Emperor Marcus Aurelius wearing a laurel wreath
Inscription | M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XXVIII
Reverse | Victoria, the goddess of victory and either Roma, a female deity personifying the city of Rome, or Virtus, the god of courage and virtue, holding a spear
Inscription | IMP VI … … S C

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors (a term coined some 13 centuries later by Niccolò Machiavelli), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calmness and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BCE to 180 CE. Marcus wrote his Meditations in Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. He had a logical mind, and his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality. His Meditations is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. After the reigns of the accomplished Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE) and the compassionate Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 CE), Emperor Marcus Aurelius succeeded them as a devoted ruler who skillfully managed both internal and external affairs of the empire. Unlike his four predecessors, who had chosen accomplished individuals to succeed them, Marcus Aurelius broke with tradition and bequeathed the throne to his own son, the infamous Commodus (177-192 CE), who was considered a disaster for the empire and later condemned by historians. This Sestertius coin, minted during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, features a profile of the emperor wearing a laurel wreath on its obverse. The inscription reads "Marcus ANTONINVS AVGustus TRibunicia Potestate XXVIII (Octāva Vicesima)," reffering to Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Antoninus), the 28th Tribunician Potentate. The reverse of the coin depicts Victoria, the goddess of victory, and either Roma, a female deity personifying the city of Rome, or Virtus, the god of courage and virtue, holding a spear. The inscription "IMPerator VI(Sextum) … … Senatus Consultum" indicates that the coin was approved by the Senate and Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the sixth commander in chief.

Born Marcus Annius Catilius Severus in 121 CE, his family was fairly well-connected to the aristocracy and ruling classes of Rome, including Hadrian, Trajan and Antoninus Pius. He attracted the attention of Hadrian at a young age, and was nicknamed verissimus – truest. Following the death of Hadrian’s adoptive son Lucius Aurelius, Hadrian named Antoninus as his successor on the condition that he adopt Marcus as well as Lucius Aurelius Verus, the son of his own adopted son, and that they succeed him as emperor in their turn. He acceded to power in 161, aged 40, and adopted the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The empire grew under his authority, with martial success against the Parthians and Germania, and diplomatic relations with states in Central Asia as far east as Han China. His Meditations, written while on campaign, is still used as a reference for leadership and duty and proposed a manner of rational virtue. He was a Stoic philosopher of considerable note, as well as a family man who took his wife and children with him on his trips around the empire. He had fourteen children by Faustina the Younger, of which only one son and four daughters survived him. He was deified upon his death from the Antonine Plague in 180, and was succeeded by Commodus.