Mars on this denarius stands almost demure, a vexillum in one hand and a short parade sword (parazonium) in the other, and that quietness is the point. Struck at an uncertain Spanish mint around 17 to 16 BC, RIC I 146 belongs to the years when Augustus was busy converting the chaos of the late Republic into something that could pass for normal government: the Secular Games of 17 BC had just staged Rome's spiritual rebirth, the Cantabrian Wars in northern Hispania were finally winding down after a decade of grinding mountain campaigns, and the standards lost to Parthia by Crassus and Antony had been recovered in 20 BC.
A Mars who carries a standard rather than swinging a sword is therefore a very particular Mars, the god as guarantor of recovered honor and pacified provinces, not the berserk patron of civil bloodshed his coinage had advertised a generation earlier. The bare head on the obverse, no laurel, no diadem, no aegis, completes the argument: this is the princeps as first citizen, and the war god has been taught to stand still.
- Mint
- Uncertain Spanish mint
- Struck
- 17-16 BC
- Authority
- Augustus