Augustus Denarius, RIC I (second edition) Augustus 136

Monetary Context and Imperial Ideology

The monetary reforms instituted by Augustus following the end of the civil wars redefined Roman imperial currency across all metals. Silver denarii represented the financial core of administrative and military accounting, tariffed at sixteen bronze asses or four sestertii. Following the constitutional settlements of 27 BC and 23 BC, Augustus sought to present his supreme authority within traditional republican legal frameworks, often emphasizing honors conferred directly by the Senate and Roman People (Senatus Populusque Romanus). In 20 BC, Augustus secured one of his greatest diplomatic triumphs by negotiating the return of the Roman legionary standards and surviving Roman prisoners from the Parthian Empire, ending decades of national disgrace stemming from the disastrous defeats of Marcus Licinius Crassus at Carrhae in 53 BC, Lucius Decidius Saxa in 40 BC, and Mark Antony in 36 BC. Although this resolution was achieved through diplomacy rather than open warfare, imperial propaganda treated the restitution of the standards as equivalent to a full military conquest. Coinage struck across imperial mints between 19 BC and 16 BC heavily celebrated this recovery, providing visible tangible proof of the princeps's divine favor, military prestige, and restorative power across the entire Mediterranean world.

Production and Mint Attribution

The series containing RIC I (second edition) Augustus 136 is attributed to the Spanish mint of Colonia Patricia, modern Cordoba, located in the province of Hispania Baetica. In early numismatic scholarship, such as Harold Mattingly's arrangement in the first volume of Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum (1923), this extensive group of denarii and aurei was commonly assigned to Caesaraugusta or broadly classified as uncertain Spanish military mints accompanying Augustus during his campaigns in the peninsula. C. H. V. Sutherland's comprehensive revision of Roman Imperial Coinage Volume I in 1984 reclassified these issues, demonstrating through die links, stylistic coherence, and hoard concentrations that the primary production center was Colonia Patricia. The mint operated with exceptional technical proficiency, striking flans of fine silver with high portrait relief, consistent round flan preparation, and regular die alignment, typically oriented at either twelve o'clock or six o'clock. Colonia Patricia served as a critical operational mint supplying silver coin for the administration, commerce, and standing legions stationed in Hispania.

Obverse Iconography and Epigraphy

The obverse of RIC I (second edition) Augustus 136 features an unadorned, bare head of Augustus facing right. The engraving reflects the refined classicizing portrait style developed during the early Principate, consciously departing from the intense, aged verism characteristic of late Republican coin portraiture. Augustus is portrayed with youthful, idealized features, neat locks of hair curving along the neck and forehead, and a calm, restrained expression that evoked divine grace and moral authority. Unlike metropolitan issues from the Rome mint produced by the college of moneyers, which often displayed more varied and sometimes provincial artistry, the Spanish workshop produced portraits of consistent elegance and high relief. Encircling the portrait is a continuous Latin legend arranged clockwise: S P Q R IMP CAESARI AVG COS XI TRI POT VI. The omission of a laurel wreath or diadem reinforces the ideological fiction of Augustus as the first citizen of the restored Republic, serving by legal mandate rather than regal presumption.

Reverse Design and the Parthian Arch

The reverse design features an intricate representation of an architectural monument: a triple triumphal arch erected in celebration of the recovered Parthian standards. The central bay is surmounted by a triumphal four-horse chariot (quadriga), carrying Augustus or an allegorical personification of triumph. Flanking the central structure, atop the side bays or standing prominently at the wings, are subordinate figures oriented toward the center. The figure on the left is typically depicted holding or extending a military standard or eagle, while the figure on the right is similarly shown displaying a signum or bowing in submission. This imagery translates into numismatic miniature the monumentality of Augustan triumphal arches, such as the arch voted by the Senate in the Roman Forum near the Temple of Julius Caesar. The design offered provincial viewers an explicit, unambiguous narrative: Parthian capitulation and the honorable restoration of Rome's military integrity without the devastation of renewed civil war.

Epigraphic Structure and Titulature

The inscriptions on RIC I (second edition) Augustus 136 are of paramount importance for the dating and constitutional interpretation of the issue. The obverse inscription, S P Q R IMP CAESARI AVG COS XI TRI POT VI, expands in Latin as Senatus Populusque Romanus Imperatori Caesari Augusto Consuli XI Tribunicia Potestate VI. This legend records the dedication of the issue by the Senate and People to the emperor, highlighting his eleventh consulship, assumed in 23 BC, and his sixth renewal of tribunician power, which ran from mid-18 BC to mid-17 BC. The reverse inscription reads CIVIB ET SIGN MILIT A PART RECVP, an abbreviation for Civibus et signis militaribus a Parthis recuperatis ('For the citizens and military standards recovered from the Parthians'). The legend explicitly links the return of captured Roman legionaries (civibus) with the recovery of lost legionary standards (signis militaribus), echoing the identical formula Augustus later used in Chapter 29 of his Res Gestae Divi Augusti to commemorate the diplomatic settlement.

Typological Classification and Chronological Placement

Within Sutherland's revised typology in RIC I, type 136 belongs to the closely interconnected series of denarii and aurei catalogued under numbers 131 through 137, all struck at Colonia Patricia and unified by the theme of the recovered standards and triumphal arches. Type 136 is strictly delimited by its specific combination of obverse iconography (bare head right), obverse legend with TRI POT VI, and reverse layout depicting the triple arch with figures holding standards. It is closely related to RIC 137, which features a similar arch design but displays Augustus's head facing left or bearing a laureate wreath, and RIC 131 through 135, which celebrate the same historical event using different compositional arrangements, such as Mars Ultor standing inside a round temple holding an eagle and standard. Because the tribunician date TRI POT VI specifically corresponds to the period between July 18 BC and June 17 BC, the striking of RIC 136 is securely fixed within this narrow chronological bracket.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Denarii of the Spanish series enjoyed substantial distribution across the western empire. While struck primarily to meet military payrolls, civic building projects, and administrative expenses in the Iberian provinces, coins of this series circulated widely into Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and Italy. Hoard evidence from western Europe, including finds across Britain, France, and Germany deposited throughout the first century AD, demonstrates that Augustan denarii of Colonia Patricia remained in regular commercial circulation for decades. Due to their high silver purity, which remained near 97 to 98 percent, these coins were actively hoarded alongside earlier Republican denarii. Over time, extensive circulation resulted in softening of high-relief features, with the delicate figures and standards atop the reverse arch being particularly vulnerable to wear. Today, specimens are documented in major public institutional collections, preserved as enduring physical evidence of early imperial diplomacy and western mint activity.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume I: Augustus to Vitellius. pp. 73-74, nos. 427-432
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC I (second edition) Augustus 136. Type record ric.1(2).aug.136
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume I: From 31 BC to AD 69 (revised edition). p. 45, no. 136