Watch List notes:

JDL Collection Part II: Roman Coins
THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

ANTONINUS PIUS, July 10, 138 – March 7, 161.

Sestertius, Rome 155–156, Æ 26.05 g.
Obv. ANTONINVS AVG – PIVS P P IMP II
His laureate head right; border of dots.
Rev. [TR] POT X–I–X – COS IIII / S C Fides militum standing facing, head left, holding standard in each hand; border of dots.
Literature
Cohen 988
BMC RE IV, 335, 1996 RIC III, 143, 943a
Banti 465
M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 64 (this coin)
Condition
Brown tone with several cleaning marks in field, otherwise extremely fine.

Provenance
Tradart Genève SA, Genève 1991, lot 317.
By the time this sestertius was struck in A.D. 155/6, the Romans already had forcefully pursued their interests in Britain for more than a century. The first true Roman invasion of the island occurred under Claudius, who annexed Britain in A.D.
43. Some aggressive campaigns from 58 to 60 were led by Nero's governor Paulinus, who marched deep into Wales, where with great brutality he captured the isle of Anglesey from its Druid masters. A terrifying response unfolded in 60 or 61 under the leadership of Queen Boudicca, to which the Romans responded with a campaign of even greater intensity. Not long afterward there were further conquests in Wales and Scotland, notably by Agricola.
Perhaps early in the reign of Hadrian the Britons appear to have attacked Romans stationed in the region of York. Hadrian authorized his governor Q. Pompeius Falco to wage war and seemingly to initiate the construction of Hadrian's Wall in about
122. Hostilities were sparked again early in the reign of Antoni- nus Pius, whose governor Q. Lollius Urbicus led a re-conquest of Southern Scotland. His success in the Scottish lowlands per- mitted the construction of the Antonine Wall, a turf wall behind a deep ditch that linked nineteen forts between the Forth and the Clyde. It re-defined the frontier, and the success of Lollius' campaigns is marked by coins struck at the Rome mint near the end of 142 and the start of 143.
There is much greater confusion about a later period in the reign of Antoninus Pius, during the mid-150s, when there may have been further military action in Britain. A rather famous issue of copper asses dated to the 18th renewal of Pius' tri- bunician power (A.D. 154/5) shows on its reverse a subdued figure of Britannia. To that type we may add this sestertius from the emperor's 19th tribunician, which is dedicated to the army without any further explanation. It remains unclear whether these types allude to another uprising in Britain at this time for which there is little archaeological evidence. It has been suggested that at this time many Britons living between the Antonine Wall and Hadrian's Wall were relocated to the Agri Decumates, the region spanning Germany and Raetia, as part of the Roman effort to extend their border in this area a few miles north of
the Rhine and the Danube. The relocated Britons are thought to have served there as settlers and defenders, perhaps along the Nicer, a tributary of the Rhine.