Here is a coin that does not show the emperor's face, and that is the point. Struck at Rome in 16 BC by the moneyer Lucius Mescinius Rufus, this denarius (RIC I 358) gives over its entire obverse to a seven line inscription crammed inside an oak wreath: a vow to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus by the Senate and Roman People, thanking the god that the *res publica* has been preserved in greater and more tranquil state through Imperator Caesar. The reverse answers with a *cippus*, a stone boundary marker, inscribed with Augustus's titles and flanked by S C, the Senate's stamp of authority. The whole composition is a piece of theological bookkeeping.
Augustus had departed for Gaul that year, and the Senate, in his absence, raised public vows for his safe return and for the health of the state, which by 16 BC had been quietly redefined as the same thing. The oak wreath, the *corona civica* awarded for saving the lives of citizens, had been voted to him in 27 BC and now ringed every formal expression of his standing. Read the legend carefully and the grammar of the new order is laid bare: the Senate and People still speak, still vow, still authorize coinage, but what they vow about is the survival of one man, on whom the *res publica* now demonstrably depends.
- Mint
- Rome
- Struck
- 16 BC
- Authority
- Augustus
- Reverse
- shows a cippus inscribed with imperial titles and the moneyer's name with S C across the field