Galba had been emperor for perhaps two months when this denarius left the dies at Lugdunum, and the message hammered into its silver is the message of a man who knew his throne rested on the legions of the West. The laureate head faces right, a small globe at the point of the neck signalling universal dominion, while on the reverse Roma sits armed upon a cuirass, Victory in one hand and the *parazonium*, the short ceremonial sword of a general, in the other, her shield propped beside her. This is not the vocabulary of a senatorial restoration or a return to Republican modesty, despite Galba's much advertised austerity; it is the vocabulary of a military takeover dressed in civic clothes.
Lugdunum was the mint that had backed Vindex's revolt and then Galba himself, and its dies spoke fluently of armed legitimacy. Within weeks of this coin's striking the legions on the Rhine would refuse the oath, Otho would buy the Praetorians in Rome, and the old man whose profile this is would be cut down in the Forum on 15 January 69. Roma keeps her Victory; she simply hands it to the next bidder.
- Mint
- Lugdunum
- Struck
- circa November AD 68-mid January AD 69
- Authority
- Galba
- Reverse
- Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory and parazonium, with shield set on ground to right