NERO. Sestertius. (Ae. 26.66g/35mm). 65 AD Lugdunum. Obv: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TR P IMP P P. Laureate bust to the right of Nero. Rev: CONG DAT POP. Nero seated on a dais, with an official offering congiarum to a citizen on the stairs with a child behind him, in the background Minerva holding an owl and a spear next to Libertas holding Tesera. (RIC 434). VF+. Retouched. Very rare specimen.
Suetonius relates that "Nero was born in Antium, nine months after the death of Tiberius, on the 18th of the Kalends of January at sunrise." The last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and one of the Roman emperors with the worst press coverage in the entire history of the Empire. Persecutions against Christians, the burning of Rome in 64 AD, and various assassinations, including that of his brother Britannicus and his mother Agrippina, are some of the accusations that history has traditionally leveled against him. Much of this fame stems from the writings of contemporary and/or later historians, such as the aforementioned Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio Cassius, who presented the emperor as a true tyrant. It should be noted that this traditional and simple interpretation has been and is currently being questioned, or at least, there is a current trend that also presents us with another side of the emperor: that of a leader beloved by the lower classes, concerned with culture, the arts, and sporting events.
From a strictly economic or numismatic perspective, a major monetary reform was implemented under Nero's government in 64 AD, aimed at expanding the nominal money supply to prevent state insolvency. His reforms basically focused on reducing the theoretical weight of both the aureus and the denarius, as well as the purity of the latter, and introducing subsidiary orichalcum denominations into circulation. This latter measure was abandoned shortly afterward, as this type of coin was never accepted by the people, but the first two remained and survived over the years.
Regarding the style of the portraits minted in the different pieces, they evolve, in a clear process of artistic realism, from that of a young, already obese man, laureate of a civic crown, to that of an adult with harsh features from the last years of his reign.
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