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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 4718409, member: 75937&quot;][ATTACH=full]1156638[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Divus Augustus, 27 BC - 14 AD.</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman Æ as, 9.30 g, 28.4 mm, 7 h.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rome, issued under Tiberius, AD 22-30.</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: DIVVS·AVGVSTVS·PATER, head of Augustus, radiate, left.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: PROVIDENT S C, Altar-enclosure with double paneled door; surmounted by uncertain ornaments.</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: RIC 81; BMCRE <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-6407" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-6407" rel="nofollow">146</a>; Cohen (Augustus) 228; RCV 1789.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>This <i>as</i> posthumously honoring the deified Augustus was one of several such bronze coins issued by Tiberius, each with different reverse types. This one depicts an altar enclosure under which is inscribed PROVIDENT. These coins have been dated by Sutherland using die marks, axes, and stylistic features to an extended period from 22-30 A.D., though he postulates it may have been issued as a <i>decennalia</i> issue in AD 24, celebrating the first ten years of Tiberius&#039; reign.[1]</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin type is not rare; in fact, it is among the most common coins found from the age of Tiberius. Grant cites 420 examples from Rome and over 300 from excavations at Vindonissa, and remarks, &quot;Issues with this type greatly exceeded all contemporary aes coinages in bulk.&quot;[2] Sutherland, in examining 62 examples, could not find even a single die-match among them.[3]</p><p><br /></p><p>Sutherland writes, &quot;the altar, with PROVIDENT(ia), suggests the divine foresight of Augustus in adopting Tiberius.&quot;[4] In their discussion of an inscription dating to AD 20, Warner Eck and colleagues note the existence of an altar to Providence, the <i>Ara Providentiae</i> in the Campus Agrippae, cited by <i>the Acts of the Arval Brethren</i>, which was built to celebrate the providence of Augustus in adopting Tiberius and compelling his stepson to adopt Germanicus. The placement of a statue of Germanicus near the altar supports this theory. Eck <i>et al</i> further observe that the altar was not mentioned by Augustus in the <i>Res Gestae</i> and propose that the <i>Ara Providentiae</i> was built, or at least vowed, between the time Augustus completed the <i>Res Gestae</i> in AD 13 and his death in AD 14.[5] Rebecca Edwards believes that this <i>as</i> of Tiberius specifically depicts the <i>Ara Providentiae</i> &quot;as proof that his rule was justified by the choice of Augustus to adopt him in 4 A.D.&quot;[6]</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Let&#039;s see your Divus Augustus coins! </i></p><p><br /></p><p>~~~</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Sutherland, C. H. V.&nbsp; “Divus Augustus Pater:&nbsp; a study in the aes coinage of Tiberius.” <i>Numismatic Chronicle</i> 6 (1941): <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42661139.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42661139.pdf" rel="nofollow">97-116</a>. See pp. 115-116 in particular.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Grant, Michael. “The pattern of official coinage in the early principate.” <i>Essays in Roman coinage presented to Harold Mattingly</i>. R. A. G. Carson, and C. H. V. Sutherland, eds., 96-112. London: Oxford University Press, 1956, p. 108.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Op. cit., p. 111.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Op. cit., p. 116.</p><p><br /></p><p>5. Eck, Werner, Antonio Caballos, and Fernando Fernández. <i>Das Senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre.</i> Vestigia, Bd. 48. München: Beck, 1996, pp. 200-01.</p><p><br /></p><p>6. Edwards, Rebecca M. “Divus Augustus Pater: Tiberius and the Charisma of Augustus.” <i>Indiana University</i>, 2003, p. 154.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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