Hadrian: Gold aureus Coinage

Coinage Scope and Selected Issues

The Gold aureus coinage issued in the name of Hadrian includes issues distinguished by their portraits, inscriptions, reverse designs and mint attribution. This study concentrates on the seated Roma issues, rather than presenting one design as the entire denomination.

The issue dates and detailed iconographic descriptions below apply to the discussed groups, not automatically to every coin bearing the ruler's name. Other types and mints require their own catalogue comparison. An individual gallery coin must be assessed from its own inscriptions and institutional record; its measurements and provenance do not define the whole coinage.

Historical Context

Following the death of Emperor Trajan at Selinus in Cilicia in August 117 CE, Publius Aelius Hadrianus was acclaimed emperor by the legions in Syria. While Hadrian's earliest coin issues focused on establishing dynastic legitimacy through references to his adoption and deified predecessors, his imperial coinage underwent a pronounced programmatic shift upon his entry into his third ordinary consulship on January 1, 119 CE. Because Hadrian declined all subsequent appointments to the consulship, the formula COS III remained a constant titular marker across his mid-reign issues.

Between approximately 120 and 123 CE, the mint of Rome struck a prominent series of gold aurei featuring the goddess Roma enthroned upon captured weapons. This issue coincided with the start of Hadrian's extensive tours through Gaul, Germania, and Britannia, where construction of the northern frontier wall commenced in 122 CE. In deliberate contrast to Trajan's aggressive eastward expansion, which Hadrian halted to stabilize defensible borders, this coinage projected an image of secured stability, strategic consolidation, and the military invulnerability of the Roman state.

Selected Issues: Obverse Iconographic Composition

The obverse displays a profile bust of Hadrian facing either right or left, depending on the die subtype. Distinct from the clean-shaven portraits characteristic of earlier Julio-Claudian, Flavian, and adoptive predecessors, Hadrian appears with curling hair and a closely trimmed Greek-style beard, establishing an imperial fashion that persisted for more than a century.

The emperor wears the triumphal laurel wreath (corona triumphalis), with ties descending behind the neck. In accordance with the specific subtype, the bust is rendered in military cuirass, often draped with the paludamentum (military cloak) fastened at the shoulder, presented either in three-quarter view from the front or turned slightly from behind.

Selected Issues: Obverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The obverse inscription is executed in monumental Classical Latin capital script, arranged along a beaded border:

• Inscribed Legend: IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG
• Transliteration: Imp(erator) Caesar Traian(us) Hadrianus Aug(ustus)
• English Translation: Imperator Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus

The continuous legend reads clockwise starting from the lower left rim, asserting the emperor's adopted Trajanic lineage alongside his supreme military and august titles.

Selected Issues: Reverse Iconographic Composition

The reverse depicts the goddess Roma, the divine personification of the Roman commonwealth, seated facing left. She wears an Attic helmet with a crest and classical Amazonian military garb, consisting of a short tunic with drapery gathered around the lower limbs. Roma sits upon a heavy cuirass placed on an assemblage of captured martial equipment.

Extended upon her right hand, she supports a small winged Victory (Victoriola), who faces her and offers a triumphal laurel wreath. In her left hand, Roma holds an inverted vertical spear or long sceptre. Arranged behind and beneath her seat is an assortment of defensive and offensive arms, including an infantry shield, a composite bow, and a quiver of arrows.

Selected Issues: Reverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The reverse inscription is executed in Classical Latin capitals, framing the seated deity along the upper and right rim:

• Inscribed Legend: P M TR P COS III
• Transliteration: P(ontifex) M(aximus), Tr(ibunicia) P(otestate), Co(n)s(ul) III
• English Translation: High Priest, holder of Tribunician Power, Consul for the third time

This continuous clockwise legend records Hadrian's supreme religious office as pontifex maximus, his annual civil authority through tribunicia potestas, and his third ordinary consulship, assumed in 119 CE.

Typology and Documented Variants

In the revised classification of Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC II.3, 2019), the gold aureus series showing Roma seated on arms under this legend arrangement is catalogued within parent group RIC II.3 536-540 (replacing the single catch-all classification RIC II 77 from the 1926 edition):

• RIC II.3 536: Laureate, cuirassed bust right, viewed from the front (without mantle).
• RIC II.3 537: Laureate bust right, cuirassed, cropped of pteryges, viewed from the front.
• RIC II.3 538: Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, viewed from the front.
• RIC II.3 539: Draped and cuirassed bust left, viewed from the front.
• RIC II.3 540: Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, viewed from the rear or side.

A typologically matching series was produced in silver denarii (RIC II.3 541-547), carrying the same Roma on arms composition and titular inscriptions. While sharing iconographic models, the denarii represent separate denomination dies struck on lighter silver flans (target ~3.2 g) as opposed to the imperial gold standard maintained for the aureus (target ~7.25-7.30 g, representing 1/45 of a Roman pound).

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

Numismatic studies have addressed two primary questions regarding this series: its precise chronological window and the symbolic intent of the arms beneath Roma.

In early twentieth-century scholarship, Harold Mattingly placed the early COS III legend arrangement broadly within c. 119-122 CE. More recent die-link studies and hoard analyses by Richard Abdy and Peter Franz Mittag in the revised RIC II.3 narrow the aureus emissions of this specific Roma seated type to c. late 121-123 CE. Museum collections frequently retain the broader span of c. 120-123 CE to reflect the full production run of related obverse dies.

A secondary scholarly debate centers on the variety of weapons beneath Roma's seat. The presence of a composite recurve bow and a quiver of arrows alongside Roman infantry shields has led certain numismatists to interpret the design as a specific allusion to Eastern pacification, such as the suppression of the Jewish revolts (Kitos War) or frontier adjustments along the Parthian borders. Other scholars, including Paul L. Strack and Theresa Gross-Diaz, suggest that the gathered weaponry functions allegorically rather than topographically, presenting a generic trophy of conquered barbarian arms to symbolize universal peace secured through imperial military preparedness.

References

1. The Art Institute of Chicago: Object Record 2004.144 (Aureus Portraying Emperor Hadrian). Collection database entry, Acc. 2004.144
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II.3 Hadrian 538. Type record ric.2_3(2).hdn.538
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II.3 Hadrian 546. Denarius parallel series, type record ric.2_3(2).hdn.546
4. Numisdata: RIC II (2nd ed.) Hadrian 537. Bust subtype record 537
5. Numisdata: RIC II (2nd ed.) Hadrian 540. Bust subtype record 540
6. Numista: Aureus - Hadrian (Roma seated left; RIC 536). Piece record #255088
7. Numista: Aureus - Hadrian (Roma seated left; RIC 539). Piece record #255091
8. Gross-Diaz, Theresa, 'Cat. 50 Aureus Portraying Hadrian: Curatorial Entry', Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Catalogue entry 50, Art Institute of Chicago (2016)