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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
7301137
Area
Coins
Title
Roman Empire Aureus (Antoninus Pius) 138-161 CE
Country
Face value
Year
140
Variety / overstrike
Head of State
Type
Designer
Series
Theme
Material
Gold- or silver content
990
Weight
7.3
Diameter
19
Thickness
Punch
Shape
Obverse
TRIB POT COS D ESII PIETAS
Reverse
IMP T AELIVS CAES ANTONINVS
Edge
Privy mark
Mint mark
Number produced
Krause and Mishler number
Catalogue number
Details
Obv; Pietas, veiled, standing right, raising right hand, holding incense box in left, above garlanded burning altar
Rev; bare head, right
Perhaps the only known aureus specimen of this particular variety, pattern like a dupondius (Cohen 601. RIC 1090. Strack 902).
Pietas, translates as "duty, religious behavior, loyalty, devotion", etc., and in English "piety" derives from the Latin.
It was one of the chief virtues among the ancient Romans, and a distinguishing virtue of the founding hero Aeneas. The sacred nature of pietas was embodied by the divine personification Pietas, a goddess often pictured on Roman coins.