Hadrian Sestertius, RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 236

Monetary Context and Civic Policy

The sestertius stood as the paramount brass denomination of the Roman monetary system established under the Augustan reforms and maintained through the Antonine era. Valued at one-fourth of a silver denarius or four copper asses, the sestertius provided a wide flan and high purchasing power for daily domestic commerce, making it the principal vehicle for civic, political, and social messaging. Struck from orichalcum, a copper-zinc alloy recognized in antiquity for its golden luster, the denomination enjoyed wide distribution throughout Italy and the Roman provinces. In the opening years of Hadrian's principate, following the sudden death of Trajan in AD 117 and the execution of four consular senators early in AD 118, the imperial administration faced acute political sensitivity. To stabilize public confidence and conciliate the senatorial and urban orders, Hadrian enacted major fiscal and social programs. Prominent among these was the famous remission of fiscal arrears amounting to nine hundred million sesterces owed to the fiscus, alongside the sustained funding of the alimentary institutions that provided financial stipends for poor Italian children. The production of sestertii under the formula Libertas Restituta during Hadrian's third consulship, beginning in AD 119, directly translated these restorative imperial policies into civic currency, reassuring Roman citizens that the new princeps served as a guarantor of constitutional harmony, economic relief, and domestic prosperity.

Mint Location and Production Standards

The issue RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 236 was produced entirely by the imperial mint in Rome, which possessed the heavy machinery, artistic staffing, and metallurgical resources required to manufacture large brass coinage for the central empire. While provincial mints produced local bronze and silver coinages across the eastern Mediterranean, the mint at Rome retained exclusive authority over the issuance of senatorially sanctioned base metal denominations bearing the Senatus Consulto mark. Sestertii of this period followed the standard Antonine target weight, hovering generally between 24 and 28 grams with an average module spanning 32 to 34 millimeters, although individual planchets frequently deviated due to manual blank-casting and trimming practices. The alloy used was orichalcum, composed predominantly of copper blended with approximately 15 to 20 percent zinc, although gradual metallurgical drift and remelting of earlier brass occasionally reduced the primary zinc proportion. Dies were hand-engraved by seasoned celators operating within distinct workshops or officinae at the capital. The execution of both obverse bust and reverse figurative groupings reflects the classicizing aesthetic characteristic of early Hadrianic art, marked by careful anatomical modelling, expressive drapery folds, and balanced spatial composition across the flan.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Image

The obverse presents a right-facing bust of Hadrian wearing the laurel wreath, the traditional symbol of triumph and civil authority. His chest is rendered bare, conveying a heroic, classicizing ethos rooted in Greek artistic traditions, while faint traces of drapery or a paludamentum remain discernible on the far left shoulder. This heroic bust type, frequently utilized on early bronze emissions of Hadrian, departs noticeably from the austere military cuirasses common in late Trajanic portraiture. Hadrian is depicted with his signature full, neatly groomed beard and curled hair, a stylistic innovation that broke with two centuries of clean-shaven imperial tradition and reflected both his philhellenism and contemporary military customs. The engraving emphasizes an assertive, youthful profile with a straight nose, deep-set eye, and defined brow, projecting vigor and composure. Surrounding the portrait, the legend runs clockwise, framing the imperial bust in clear, balanced lettering designed to communicate immediate dynastic continuity and legal legitimacy to the viewer.

Reverse Iconography: Libertas Restituta

The reverse iconography of RIC 236 features an elaborate figurative group centered on imperial munificence and civic restoration. Hadrian sits facing left on a raised tribunal or platform, dressed in a civil toga and extending his right hand in an open, beneficent gesture toward a female figure standing before him. The woman, heavily draped, stands facing right, occasionally depicted resting her forward foot upon the lower step of the tribunal platform. She holds one infant child cradled against her arm or bosom while leading a second, older child beside her. The exergue carries the definitive motto LIBERTAS RESTITVTA, identifying the scene as the restoration of liberty. Numismatists and historians have long debated the precise institutional reference of this imagery. While the presence of the mother and children strongly recalls Trajan's alimentary iconography, where Italian children receive imperial maintenance, the explicit legend invoking Libertas ties the scene to broader civic rehabilitation. Under the Roman political lexicon, Libertas encompassed not merely republican independence, but freedom from arbitrary fiscal extraction, debt oppression, and legal coercion. The composition therefore presents Hadrian as a civil benefactor who restores social security to Roman families, directly relieving them through fiscal remission and social support.

Inscriptions, Epigraphy, and Political Messaging

The inscriptions on RIC 236 embody the political vocabulary of Hadrian's early reign. The obverse legend reads IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG, recording the emperor's official imperial title as Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus. The explicit retention of the name Traianus was crucial during the AD 117 to 123 phase, as it constantly reiterated Hadrian's adoption and justified his succession in the face of senatorial skepticism. The reverse perimeter legend reads PONT MAX TR POT COS III, delineating his primary constitutional magistracies: Pontifex Maximus (chief priest), holder of Tribunicia Potestas (tribunician power), and Consul for the third time. The exergual inscription, LIBERTAS RESTITVTA, provides the thematic focus, translating literally as 'Liberty Restored'. The letters S C, signifying Senatus Consulto ('by decree of the Senate'), flank the central figures in the lower field, fulfilling the legal convention that all base metal coinage struck at Rome was issued under senatorial sanction. Epigraphically, the lettering is well-proportioned and deeply cut in classical Roman square capitals, demonstrating high technical competence in die layout and spacing.

Typology and Chronological Placement

In the chronological taxonomy of Hadrian's coinage established by Paul Strack and updated in the revised edition of Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC II, Part 3), this sestertius belongs to the prolific early bronze issues of Hadrian's third consulship. Hadrian assumed his third and final consulship on January 1, AD 119, an office he held for only four months before resigning it. Nevertheless, the title COS III was retained on his coin legends throughout the remainder of his principate. The specific combination of the early obverse legend IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG with COS III securely confines the production of RIC 236 to the period between AD 119 and AD 120. By approximately AD 123 to 124, the Rome mint underwent a sweeping reform of imperial nomenclature, discarding the patronymic Traianus and shortening the obverse inscription to HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS. Minor die variations exist within RIC 236, particularly in the placement of the woman's foot on or beside the platform step, and subtle differences in drapery folds on Hadrian's far shoulder, but all conform to the unified catalogue type.

Circulation, Hoarding, and Monetary Life

As a principal denomination of everyday commerce, sestertii of the Libertas Restituta type entered heavy and prolonged circulation throughout the western empire, including Italy, Gaul, Hispania, Britain, and the Danubian frontier provinces. Due to their high intrinsic and nominal value, sestertii did not suffer rapid demonetization and often remained in monetary transit for decades, as attested by worn specimens recovered in Antonine and Severan hoards. Wear patterns on surviving examples frequently demonstrate decades of handling, with the high-relief elements of the portrait and the central reverse figures softening over time. The brass alloy was also susceptible to soil corrosion and environmental patination, yielding surfaces that range from deep green and olive patinas to brown and river-cleaned surfaces depending on burial context. Because orichalcum coins held substantial value, they were frequently gathered in family savings hoards alongside silver denarii, providing valuable archaeological markers for municipal prosperity and imperial monetary reach during the early second century AD.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume III: Nerva to Hadrian. p. 410, no. 1160
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 236. RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 236
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume II, Part 3: From Hadrian to Antoninus Pius (AD 117-138) - Hadrian. pp. 82-84, no. 236
4. Untersuchungen zur romischen Reichspragung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil II: Die Reichspragung zur Zeit des Hadrian. no. 531