Titus Silver Denarius, RIC II, Part 1 (second edition) Vespasian 986

Monetary and Political Context

The monetary landscape of the late 70s AD reflects the political stabilization and administrative recovery engineered by Vespasian following the devastation of the Year of the Four Emperors. Having emerged victorious from the civil conflicts of AD 68 to 69, Vespasian prioritized fiscal retrenchment and the institutional renewal of the state treasury. Silver denarii constituted the backbone of everyday administrative, civic, and military transactions throughout the empire. By striking denarii in the names of his sons Titus and Domitian, Vespasian projected dynastic continuity and assured the public and legions of an orderly succession. Titus, who had played an essential role in the Jewish War and shared the tribunician power and censorship, was systematically promoted as co-regent. Denarii bearing his portrait and titles functioned as crucial communicative media, familiarizing the Roman world with his elevated status and authority. In this specific issue, minted between AD 77 and AD 78, dynastic legitimacy is interwoven with classical religious and mythological prestige, underscoring that the new ruling family was divinely destined to restore peace, fertility, and prosperity to the empire.

Production Standards and Mint Attribution

Production of this coin type is securely assigned to the primary imperial mint at Rome, which operated under tight bureaucratic supervision and standardized production methods during the Flavian period. Flavian silver denarii of this phase conformed to the monetary benchmarks established by Nero's reform of AD 64, which had reduced the nominal weight of the denarius from about 3.9 grams to approximately 3.4 grams, equivalent to 1/96 of a Roman pound. Contemporary metal analysis indicates that Rome mint denarii under Vespasian maintained an average silver purity hovering between 80 and 85 percent, with the remainder composed of copper and minor trace elements. The physical production process involved casting blank silver flans in open molds, heating them, and manually striking them between hand-carved intaglio dies. The die alignment for imperial denarii of this epoch was generally upright or inverted, reflecting systematic alignment practices among mint celators. RIC II, Part 1 (second edition) Vespasian 986 demonstrates high technical consistency in engraving style, displaying the characteristic naturalistic modeling and bold relief characteristic of the Flavian capital mint.

Obverse Iconography and Execution

The obverse of the type features an unadorned, laureate head of Titus facing right. Engravers at the Rome mint captured the distinct physical characteristics of the heir apparent, presenting a mature, fleshy portrait with a broad neck, strong chin, and slightly furrowed brow, mirroring the veristic portraiture established for his father while preserving Titus's individual features. The laurel wreath encircling his head rests securely on cropped curly hair, with the ties falling neatly down the nape of the neck. This artistic approach diverged sharply from the youthful idealization of Julio-Claudian princeps portraiture, deliberately embracing realism, sobriety, and military gravitas. The portrait is framed by a clear peripheral inscription, separated from the coin edge by a finely beaded border. The die cutters achieved exceptional clarity in the portrait's planes and muscle structure, emphasizing the robust vigor and administrative readiness of the Caesar.

Reverse Design and Symbolism

The reverse type presents a sow facing left, standing or advancing on an exergual line, with three piglets visible beneath her body. This imagery directly references the famous founding myth of Lavinium and Alba Longa recounted in Book VIII of Virgil's Aeneid, in which the river god Tiberinus prophesies to Aeneas that he will discover a great white sow suckling thirty young on the shore, marking the divine site for his people's settlement and future empire. In numismatic representations, the thirty piglets of the literary tradition were routinely compressed into three piglets to preserve clarity and compositional balance within the small circumference of the denarius flan. The motif had ancient precedents on Roman republican coins and had been struck by imperial predecessors, but under the Flavians, it carried renewed ideological weight. It symbolized peace, territorial foundation, maternal fertility, and the restoration of Rome under divine favor. By evoking the primal origins of the Latin people, the coin positioned the Flavian house as the rightful guardians of ancestral traditions.

Epigraphy and Legend Readings

The legends on both faces of the coin provide precise constitutional and chronological anchors. The obverse legend reads T CAESAR VESPASIANVS, beginning clockwise from the lower left. This concise formula identifies the subject by his praenomen, Titus, his hereditary status as Caesar, and the adoptive cognomen Vespasianus taken from his father, omitting personal offices on the obverse to maintain uncluttered letterspacing. The reverse legend consists entirely of the imperatorial acclamation IMP XIII, positioned in the field above and around the central design. This acclamation records Titus's thirteenth receipt of imperatorial salutation, an honor gained through the military achievements of the regime, particularly in Britain and on the Rhine-Danube frontiers. Flavian epigraphy on these Rome issues is marked by neat, square capital lettering with modest serifs, cut deeply into the dies to resist rapid wear and ensure legibility across heavy circulation.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard classification of Roman imperial coinage, this issue is catalogued as RIC II, Part 1 (second edition) Vespasian 986, replacing the earlier designation of RIC II Vespasian 220 from the 1926 first edition by Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham. In their revised 2007 corpus, Ian Buttrey and Thomas Buttrey reordered the complex series of late Flavian issues, establishing that the combination of Titus's IMP XIII acclamation with the reverse types of this group belongs squarely to the consular year AD 77 to 78, concurrent with Vespasian's eighth consulship and Titus's sixth consulship. The sow and piglets type was struck in parallel for both Vespasian (with reverse legend IMP XIX, RIC 982) and Titus (with IMP XIII, RIC 986), illustrating that it formed part of a coordinated emission pairing the Augustus and the Caesar with identical symbolic motifs. A closely related variant of the type depicts the sow facing right instead of left, categorized under distinct catalogue numbers, underscoring the importance of animal orientation and legend placement in Flavian typological studies.

Circulation, Hoard Context, and Longevity

Silver denarii of this emission entered broad circulation throughout the western and eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, as well as along the fortified frontiers where military payrolls drove significant silver consumption. Flavian denarii remained active in commercial circulation for well over a century, as demonstrated by their routine presence in major imperial coin hoards dated to the second century AD, including deposits buried under Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus. Because the silver content of denarii remained relatively stable until the debasements of the Severan era, earlier Flavian pieces were not systematically hoarded or melted down in preference to later issues, but instead circulated until mechanical wear reduced their legends and surface relief. Excavation and hoard finds across Roman Britain, Gaul, the Germanies, and the Mediterranean basin confirm that the sow type of Titus traveled extensively as an ordinary, dependable medium of exchange.

References

1. The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage: From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan. pp. 210-235
2. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II, Part 1: Vespasian to Domitian (AD 69-96), Second Revised Edition. p. 136, no. 986
3. Coinage and Finances in the Reign of Domitian, AD 81-96 (BAR International Series 178). pp. 9-22
4. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. II: Vespasian to Domitian. pp. 44-46, nos. 226-228
5. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II, Part 1 (second edition) Vespasian 986. Type ric.2_1(2).ves.986