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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 25402632, member: 128351&quot;]It&#039;s a budget sestertius, but it&#039;s one of my favourites. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1627052[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Commodus, sestertius, Rome AD 185/6. AE 29 mm, 17.68 g, 6 h.</p><p>Obv.: M COMMODVS ANT AVG P BRIT FELIX, head of Commodus, laureate, right</p><p>Rev.: P M TR P XI IMP VII COS V P P / S C / FID EXERCIT, Commodus, in military attire, standing left on platform, holding sceptre in right hand and haranguing six soldiers</p><p>RIC III Commodus 468D</p><p><br /></p><p>Dated TR P XI and IMP VII, this sestertius was minted in 185/6. The soldiers to which the emperor is delivering a speech are the praetorians, garrisoned in Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>There had been an attempted coup in 185. The praetorian prefect Perennis, commander of the praetorian cohorts since 180, plotted the assassination of Commodus, but he was betrayed by some of his men who secretly went to the palace and exposed the whole thing to the emperor. In imperial Rome, it was extremely difficult for civilians to meet the emperor in person, but the military had an easy access to him. This is what Herodian later wrote : &quot; <i>For not much later, some soldiers visited Perennis&#039; son in secret and carried off coins bearing the prefect&#039;s portrait. And, without the knowledge of Perennis, the praetorian prefect, they took the coins directly to Commodus and revealed to him the secret details of the plot. They were richly rewarded for their service. While Perennis was still ignorant of these developments and anticipated nothing of the sort, the emperor sent for him at night and had him beheaded.</i>&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Commodus soon went to the praetorian camp in order to secure the soldiers&#039; loyalty.</p><p><br /></p><p>New coins representing this imperial visit to the praetorian camp were minted, first in gold and silver, later in bronze, with the legend <i>Fides exercitus</i>, &quot;loyalty of the army&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Herodian is the only author mentioning the coins with Perennis&#039; portrait. Is it true, or is it a mere legend? If such coins were actually minted, they must have been aurei and denarii (like Pescennius Niger&#039;s 193 coinage in Antioch), and all destroyed soon afterwards...But it&#039;s more probably a legend, for Cassius Dio, who considered Perennis an able commander slain by his own mutinous soldiers, does not mention these coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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