Marcus Aurelius Bronze Sestertius, RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1702

Monetary Context and Denominational Function

During the Antonine period, the sestertius occupied a central position within the Roman trimetallic currency system as the primary large brass coin used for substantial daily commercial transactions, military payments, and state accounting. Valued at one quarter of a silver denarius or four copper asses, the denomination combined substantial physical module with significant purchasing power. Its broad flan made it the premier medium for imperial public messaging, allowing die engravers ample space to execute intricate political, dynastic, and religious imagery that could be easily seen and understood by the general populace across the empire. The striking of consecratio coinages represented an essential component of Roman state religion and dynastic ideology. Following the death of an empress who had received the formal decree of deification from the Senate, special issues in gold, silver, and bronze were commissioned to announce her divine status. When Annia Galeria Faustina, known to modern scholarship as Faustina the Younger, died late in 175 AD or early in 176 AD in Cappadocia, Marcus Aurelius requested her formal apotheosis from the Senate. In response, the mint of Rome initiated an extensive series of posthumous commemoratives. Type RIC III 1702 represents a major sestertius variety within this memorial framework, using the substantial mass of orichalcum to project the concept of dynastic immortality into monetary circulation during a period marked by military campaigns on the northern frontier.

Mint of Rome and Manufacturing Standards

The entire production of RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1702 took place at the primary imperial mint in the city of Rome, which exercised an absolute monopoly over state-level bronze and orichalcum coin production for the western empire during this period. Sestertii of this era were manufactured using orichalcum, a copper-zinc alloy known for its bright golden hue when newly cast, although trace quantities of tin and lead were frequently incorporated into the metallurgic melt through the recycling of older bronze coinage. Flans were cast in open or two-part molds and subsequently adjusted for weight before being brought to striking temperature. Dies were hand-engraved into iron or bronze blocks using cold chisels, drills, and gravers, resulting in subtle artistic divergences across individual die pairs while maintaining strict iconographic uniformity. Weights for second-century sestertii clustered around a theoretical standard of approximately 25 to 28 grams, equivalent to roughly one-twelfth of a Roman pound, with typical diameters ranging between 30 and 34 millimeters. Die axis alignment at the Rome mint during the late Antonine epoch followed a standard vertical or near-vertical orientation, predominantly striking at twelve o'clock or six o'clock positions. The physical execution of RIC III 1702 demonstrates the high technical and aesthetic capability of the central mint's engravers, who managed to balance the complex high-relief modeling of the ascending peacock with the structural demands of cold or warm striking on thick orichalcum blanks.

Obverse Iconography and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1702 presents a right-facing portrait bust of the deified empress, styled with classical restraint and dynastic solemnity. Faustina the Younger is depicted draped about the shoulders in the stola, reflecting her traditional status as an exemplary Roman matron, imperial mother, and consecrated Augusta. Her coiffure corresponds to the final distinct portrait type documented during her life and carried into her memorial issues, often classified in archaeological and numismatic literature as her eighth or ninth hair phase. The hair is elaborately parted and dressed in deep, nearly vertical waves that cascade across the temples and frame the forehead, descending along the cheek in delicate curling locks before being gathered at the nape of the neck into a broad, low-hanging braided chignon. This formal coiffure distinguished Faustina from her mother, Faustina the Elder, whose posthumous portraits uniformly featured a high coiled coronet of braids atop the crown of the head. The facial features convey an idealized maturity devoid of temporal frailty, capturing the smooth planes of the cheeks, straight nose, and calm gaze appropriate for an imperial figure translated into the divine realm. The entire portrait is framed within an outer border of dots, set inside the surrounding epigraphic formula.

Reverse Design: Apotheosis on the Soaring Peacock

The reverse iconography of RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1702 provides an explicit depiction of imperial apotheosis, capturing the physical ascent of the empress to the heavens. Faustina is shown draped and seated facing left upon the back of a peacock that soars diagonally upward toward the right with its expansive wings fully spread. The empress holds a long vertical or slightly tilted sceptre in her right hand, symbolizing divine majesty and imperial authority, while a veil billows in a majestic semicircular arc behind her head and shoulders, a visual convention denoting transit into celestial spheres. The peacock was sacred to Juno, the queen of the Roman pantheon, serving as the mythological vehicle for deified empresses in precisely the same manner that Jupiter's eagle transported deceased emperors. By placing Faustina on Juno's avian emissary, the design explicitly equates the late empress with the heavenly consort of the supreme deity, aligning Antonine household mythology with traditional Olympian theology. Engravers rendered the plumage of the peacock with delicate parallel incision work, capturing the expansive wingspan and fan-like feathers of the tail. Flanking the lower composition across the fields are the large letters S and C, denoting Senatus Consulto, the formal legal sanction of the Roman Senate for the production of base-metal currency.

Epigraphy and Legends

The inscriptions on RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1702 are concise, authoritative, and cast in standard classical capital lettering. The obverse legend reads DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, inscribed continuously around the circumference of the die from the lower left to the lower right. The word DIVA explicitly denotes her post-mortem status as a deified goddess, an honor voted by the Senate at the urging of Marcus Aurelius. The cognomen PIA emphasizes her devotion to family, duty, and state, an ideological quality that had been attached to her nomenclature during her lifetime and preserved in her memorial issues. The reverse bears the straightforward legend CONSECRATIO, inscribed across the upper perimeter above the soaring figure of the empress. This single substantive word describes the ritual act of deification and the religious transformation of the mortal Augusta into a divine protectress of Rome. Finally, the letters S C appear split across the left and right fields of the reverse flan. Standing for Senatus Consulto, this formula reaffirmed the traditional constitutional role of the Senate in approving the issue of base-metal coinage, an administrative formality consistently maintained throughout the Principate even as genuine authority over the mint resided firmly with the emperor.

Typology and Chronological Placement

Within the broader corpus of Antonine consecration issues, RIC III 1702 belongs to the extensive suite of memorial types struck between the death of Faustina the Younger in late 175 or early 176 AD and the death of Marcus Aurelius in March of 180 AD. The Roman Imperial Coinage classifies this reverse under catalog number 1702 for the sestertius, while parallel designs exist in silver denarii and gold aurei, illustrating the programmatic rollout of the apotheosis theme across all monetary metals. Related sestertii within the same consecratio horizon depict alternative allegorical motifs, such as an altar, a funeral pyre, a peacock standing alone facing right or left, or Faustina seated holding a phoenix. The specific composition of Faustina carried aloft by a soaring peacock stands out as the most active and narrative visualization among these types. Because Marcus Aurelius did not include his own tribunician numbers or imperial consulships on the posthumous issues of his wife, absolute dating within the 176 to 180 AD window relies on hoard associations, metallurgical analyses, and stylistic sequencing of the Rome mint's portrait dies. Although Commodus continued to strike memorial issues after his father's death, the main body of Diva Faustina Pia sestertii with the soaring peacock reverse is attributed securely to the final four years of Marcus Aurelius's sole and joint reign.

Circulation, Hoarding, and Survival

Following their emission at Rome, sestertii of the Diva Faustina Pia consecration series entered broad imperial circulation throughout Italy and the western provinces, including Gaul, Britannia, the Germanies, and the Danubian frontiers. Due to their substantial base-metal mass, sestertii tended to remain in active circulation for several decades, frequently continuing to change hands through the Severan period and into the third century AD. Heavy circulation took a visible toll on these coins, and surviving specimens frequently show considerable surface wear, flattening of the high relief on the peacock's wings and Faustina's cheek, and smoothing of the peripheral legends. Archaeological recovery of this specific type occurs across both civic contexts and military encampments along the limes, confirming that base-metal consecratio coins functioned as everyday commercial currency rather than merely as ceremonial tokens. In hoards, sestertii of Faustina the Younger are commonly discovered alongside earlier issues of Antoninus Pius, Faustina the Elder, and Marcus Aurelius, reflecting prolonged hoarding patterns where heavy orichalcum flans were preserved for their intrinsic metallic value as the imperial silver currency underwent gradual debasement.

References

1. Die Bildnistypen der Faustina minor und die Fecunditas Augustae. pp. 22-38
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. pp. 653-655
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1702. ric.3.m_aur.1702
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. p. 347, no. 1702
5. Moneta Imperii Romani, Band 18: Die Münzprägung der Kaiser Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus und Commodus. MIR 18, nos. 331-333