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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 2883099, member: 83956&quot;]<span style="color: #0000ff"><b>Hadrian 117-138 A.D.; Struck: 119-121 A.D.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><b>AE Sestertius; 32 mm.; 22.25 g.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><b>IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG PM TR P COS III; laureate bust right.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><b>LIBERTAS PVBLICA; Libertas, draped, seated left on throne, holding branch in right hand, which rests on lap, and vertical sceptre in left. SC. RIC 2.583 (a);&nbsp; C. 948 “About VF/F. Wonderful turquoise patina.” From an unsold lot from an Artemide Aste live auction, Asta Numismatica 40e, held September 9-10, 2017.</b></span></p><p><br /></p><p>So yesterday I received my second-only sestertius: a Hadrian from an Artemide Aste unsold lot. (My first experience with them, and a positive one.) The reaction between the bronze and whatever elements were in the earth at its find spot resulted in its lovely turquoise patina. And though it has plenty of honest wear, you can still see the fine details of one of Rome’s finer emperors.</p><p><br /></p><p>I posted it to Facebook and someone asked who the reverse depicted. “Public Liberty” is the easy answer, but in researching LIBERTAS I found that it meant something very different from what my (American) mind conceived it to be. I was thinking along the lines of a kind of civic, government-abetted freedom, which seemed ironic since Hadrian was known for consolidating imperial power at the expense of the Senate. But I read this blurb from <i>Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome During the Late Republic and Early Principate</i>, by C. H. Wirszubski, and it changed my mind:</p><p><br /></p><p><b><i>“It is interesting that from Galba onwards LIBERTAS PUBLICA becomes a very common legend on imperial coins. Libertas publica means freedom as it is enjoyed by the public, that is to say absence of oppression and lawlessness; it signifies a state of affairs, not a form of government. Under the Empire it meant order, security, and confidence. It was in fact tantamount to securitas.” (p. 159) </i></b></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]691388[/ATTACH]</p><p>So it turns out the LIBERTAS legend didn’t really mean what I thought it meant; the reverse legend, then, seems far more interesting and nuanced than American-style “freedom.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Feel free to pile on with your <i>LIBERTATES</i> or HADRIANS.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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