Pertinax. Gold Aureus (7.26 g), AD 193. Rome. IMP CAES P HELV PERTIN AVG, laureate head of Pertinax right.
Reverse: LAETITIA TE-MPOR COS II, Laetitia standing facing, head left, holding wreath and scepter. RIC 4a; Lempereur 83 (D37/R57; this coin); BMC 7; Calicó 2383. Boldly struck on a full flan. Wonderful bold portraiture!
Extremely Fine / Very Fine. Estimated Value $25,000 - UP
Pertinax rose from humble beginnings to the highest echelons of administration, having served as a successful general and subsequently governor of several important provinces. At the time of Commodus' murder, he was Prefect of Rome. Upon his elevation on 1 January AD 193, Pertinax immediately began a series of legal and fiscal reforms, which although sound were unpopular with the corrupt officials then serving in the highest administrative posts in the Empire. This quickly led to an attempted coup, led by his co-consul Sosius Falco just two days after his accession. While the first coup was put down, a second was just beginning, and it came to a head on 28 March when the praetorians stormed the imperial palace and murdered the 66-year-old Pertinax. His reign had lasted a mere 86 days. The guardsmen paraded his decapitated head on a lance through the streets of Rome, but this heinous deed would shortly condemn them as when Septimius Severus arrived in Rome he tricked the Praetorians into assembling unarmed, then dismissed and banished the entire Guard under threat from his Illyrian troops.
Ex Gorny & Mosch 240 (10 October 2016), 527; NYS XXXIV (6 January 2015), 613.
Roman Imperial Coinage
