Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 94 24 Feb 2022
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Hadrian Æ Sestertius. Rome, AD 119-120. IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG P M TR P COS III, laureate bust to right, slight drapery over far shoulder / RELIQVA VETERA HS NOVIES MILL ABOLITA, Lictor standing to left holding fasces and setting fire to a heap of papers, citizens stand to right facing him, gesturing toward the action; SC in exergue. RIC II.3 264; BMCRE 1208. 23.22g, 33mm, 6h.
Near Very Fine. Rare and of particular historical interest.
From a private English collection.
This rare sestertius commemorates the symbolic burning of promissory notes (in particular, arrears owed to the treasury by Roman citizens); a momentous occasion in the initial years of Hadrian's rule. The reverse type recalls an actual historical moment, said to have occurred in Trajan's Forum, wherein by a lector (or, in some accounts, Hadrian himself) very publicly applied a torch to thousands of documents (stipulationes).
A truly remarkable example of imperial generosity, this act naturally endeared Hadrian greatly to his subjects and led to the subsequent erection of a monument in the Forum inscribed "to the first of all principes and the only one who, by remitting nine hundred million sesterces owed to the fiscus, provided security not merely for his present citizens but also for their descendants by this generosity."
The reverse legend, RELIQVA VETERA HS NOVIES MILL ABOLITA, literally translates to "old receipts in the amount of nine times a hundred thousand sestertii cancelled", though, owing to the monumental inscription, we must assume that the actual sum of debt annulled was a staggering 900 million sestertii.
Near Very Fine. Rare and of particular historical interest.
From a private English collection.
This rare sestertius commemorates the symbolic burning of promissory notes (in particular, arrears owed to the treasury by Roman citizens); a momentous occasion in the initial years of Hadrian's rule. The reverse type recalls an actual historical moment, said to have occurred in Trajan's Forum, wherein by a lector (or, in some accounts, Hadrian himself) very publicly applied a torch to thousands of documents (stipulationes).
A truly remarkable example of imperial generosity, this act naturally endeared Hadrian greatly to his subjects and led to the subsequent erection of a monument in the Forum inscribed "to the first of all principes and the only one who, by remitting nine hundred million sesterces owed to the fiscus, provided security not merely for his present citizens but also for their descendants by this generosity."
The reverse legend, RELIQVA VETERA HS NOVIES MILL ABOLITA, literally translates to "old receipts in the amount of nine times a hundred thousand sestertii cancelled", though, owing to the monumental inscription, we must assume that the actual sum of debt annulled was a staggering 900 million sestertii.