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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 3959900, member: 57495&quot;]The virtue of Pietas, religious or filial devotion, was one of great importance to the ancient Romans, and Pius was a cognomen reserved for those who could demonstrate that they had it by the bucketloads.&nbsp; Antoninus Pius was one of those guys, and he so burnished the idea that a good ruler should also embody this virtue that even sociopathic and fruitcake emperors like Caracalla and Elagabalus would, decades later, take his name in wholesale fashion for their own, patently false advertising be damned.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>But, Antoninus wasn&#039;t always called Pius.&nbsp; We know this because the earliest coins struck in his name as emperor made no mention of his PIVS-ness at all.&nbsp; On these rare issues, struck in the weeks following Hadrian&#039;s death on 10 July 138, he is either simply IMP ANTONINVS AVGVSTVS, IMP T AEL CAES ANTONINVS AVG, or IMP CAES AEL ANTONINVS AVG.</p><p><br /></p><p>The story goes that Antoninus, not even six months into his job as Caesar, was with Hadrian when the latter died at his villa in the seaside town of Baiae, over a hundred miles south of Rome.&nbsp; In the city, talk was that the Senate was gleefully planning to not only refuse the hated Hadrian the traditional deification, but were also intending to annul his acts as emperor.&nbsp; However, our man Antoninus, principled and pius to a fault, was not having any of it.&nbsp; Upon his return to Rome, he insisted that the senators reconsider their position, stating that if they were to annul Hadrian&#039;s enactments, they would then also be obliged to annul his own adoption and succession as emperor.&nbsp; The Senate pragmatically decided to back down, and with that, Antoninus secured for Hadrian his divinity, and earned for himself the name Pius.&nbsp; On the very next issue of his coins, and forever more thereafter, he would be... The PIVS One.</p><p><br /></p><p>A-Pi&#039;s AD 138 coins as Augustus from the early two issues without PIVS are all relatively rare.&nbsp; This one has a reverse type that was not recorded in RIC, and the Reka Devnia hoard contained no examples.&nbsp; I&#039;ve always been quite intrigued by Pius&#039;s early coins, and didn&#039;t have one of these, so I was pretty pleased when this one unexpectedly turned up in a small group lot I bought earlier this month.&nbsp; As always, if you have &#039;em (and I know there are a couple of members here who specialize in A-Pi&#039;s coinage), please show &#039;em!&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1043137[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>ANTONINUS PIUS </b></p><p>AR Denarius. 3.02g, 18.1mm. Rome mint, July AD 138. RIC III -; BMCRE pg 2, *; RSC 659a. O: IMP CAES AEL ANTONINVS AVG, bare head right. R: PONT MAX TR POT COS, Felicitas standing left, holding caduceus and cornucopiae.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><i>Ex Phil Peck Collection</i></p><p>Notes: Rare. Not in RIC; none found in the Reka Devnia hoard.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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