Roman Imperial: Vespasian (AD 69-79). AR denarius (18mm, 3.49 gm, 5h). NGC XF 5/5 - 4/5....

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Vespasian (AD 69-79). AR denarius (18mm, 3.49 gm, 5h). NGC XF 5/5 - 4/5. Rome, AD 80-81. DIVVS AVGVSTVS VESPASIANVS•, laureate head of Divus Vespasian right / Two capricorns back-to-back supporting shield decorated with S C; banded globe below. RIC II.1 (Titus) 357.

From The Peh Family Collection, Part IV. Ex Heritage Auctions, Auction 397 (9 January 2006), lot 12073.

The death and deification of Vespasian in AD 79 was marked by an extensive commemorative coinage struck by his son and successor Titus. The Roman biographer Suetonius records a remarkable foreshadowing witticism which had been made by the late emperor while he was suffering from the severe dysentery that would take his life shortly thereafter: "Vae, puto deus fio" ("Woe's me, I think I'm becoming a god").

The use of Capricorn as a common reverse type for the posthumous coinage of Vespasian is unusual--as it was not the late emperor's astrological sign--however this choice is not without explanation. Most likely the Capricorn is an allusion to the emperor Augustus, his deification, and the divine inevitability of the success of his imperial dynasty. Suetonius reports a relevant anecdote in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, where a famous astrologer throws himself at Augustus' feet in awe of the emperor's fortuitous zodiac sign: "From that time on Augustus had such faith in his destiny, that he made his horoscope public and issued a silver coin stamped with the sign of the constellation Capricornus, under which he was born."

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