By 67, Nero needed Salus more than Salus needed Nero. This denarius, struck at Rome in the last full year of his reign, presents the emperor laureate on the obverse and on the reverse the goddess of public welfare seated on an ornamented throne, patera in hand, the picture of serene continuity. The image was old currency in every sense: Salus had been invoked by emperors since Augustus to advertise the health of ruler and state as a single indivisible thing. But Nero in 67 was touring Greece, collecting victory crowns at games rigged in his favor, while back in Italy Helius governed in his absence and senators waited to see who would move first.
The Pisonian conspiracy was two years old, Corbulo and the Scribonii brothers had been forced to suicide, and the Vindex revolt was months away. To strike Salus on silver in this moment was not delusion exactly, it was insistence. Coins do not record what is, they record what the mint is told to claim. Within a year the laureate head on this denarius would be declared a public enemy by the Senate that had spent a decade watching him sing.
- Mint
- Rome
- Struck
- circa AD 67-68
- Authority
- Nero
- Reverse
- Salus seated left on an ornamented throne, holding a patera and resting her hand at her side