By 63 and 64, when this denarius was struck at Rome, Nero had been emperor for nearly a decade and was busy reinventing what an emperor looked like. The coin (RIC 41) shows him bare-headed, no laurel, no diadem, just the soft, fleshy profile of a young Caesar, and on the reverse Virtus stands with parazonium and scepter, one foot planted on a discarded helmet amid a litter of shields. The pose is borrowed from the visual grammar of victorious generals, but Nero had won nothing in person: the trophies under Virtus's heel are the spoils of his commanders, above all Corbulo, who had been hammering away in Armenia while the emperor performed in Rome.
The message is that virtus, that compact Roman idea welding courage to manliness to military worth, belonged to the princeps no matter whose sword had done the work. Within four years the legions would have a different opinion, and the bare head would look less like classical restraint than like a man who had forgotten he needed armor.
- Mint
- Rome
- Struck
- A.D. 63-64
- Authority
- Nero
- Reverse
- depicts Virtus standing left, holding a parazonium and scepter, with her foot set upon a helmet among shields