The reverse of this denarius is a press release in silver. Struck at an uncertain mint in Spain around 19 to 18 BC, RIC I 79a turns its back on the standard repertoire of gods and trophies to show, instead, the honors themselves: the *clipeus virtutis*, that golden shield voted by the Senate in 27 BC and inscribed with the cardinal virtues of *virtus*, *clementia*, *iustitia*, and *pietas*, here abbreviated CL V and framed by the *corona civica* of oak leaves, the wreath given to a citizen who saved the lives of fellow citizens in battle. The legend OB CIVIS SERVATOS, "for saving the citizens," with SPQR squarely in the middle, makes the fiction explicit and unembarrassed. Augustus, whose bare head occupies the obverse without title or epithet, is not pictured as a victor or a god; he is pictured as the man the Senate and People of Rome chose to thank for ending a civil war he had largely won by prosecuting one.
The *corona civica* had hung over the door of his house on the Palatine since 27 BC, a permanent advertisement that the *princeps* was a savior, not a conqueror, of Romans. Two decades into the new order, with the constitutional settlements of 27 and 23 BC behind him and the Parthian standards just recovered in 20, the regime had settled on a visual grammar in which power wore the costume of gratitude. The shield speaks; the man does not need to.
- Mint
- Uncertain Spanish mint
- Struck
- 19-18 BC
- Authority
- Augustus
- Reverse
- round shield inscribed with S • P • Q • R and CL • V in two lines within an oak wreath, representing the Clippus Virtutis (Shield of Valor) and Corona Civica (Civic Crown) voted by the Senate to honor Augustus