archaicwonder:Extremely Rare Coin of the Roman Emperor GalbaThis bronze sestertius, has the emperor’
archaicwonder:Extremely Rare Coin of the Roman Emperor GalbaThis bronze sestertius, has the emperor’s name, IMP SER GALBA and the date, AVG TR P (June 68) around the oak-wreathed and draped bust of Galba. The reverse has the image of Victory alighting, holding a wreath in her right hand and a palm branch over her left shoulder with the letters S – C on either side of her. Extremely rare and among the finest sestertii of Galba in existence. A magnificent portrait of great strength in the finest style of the period. A wonderful untouched brown-Tiber tone and extremely fine. Sold at auction for 112,675 USD.The portrait on this fine sestertius of Galba, who ruled for only 7 months between 68 and 69 AD, is of extraordinary quality by a master-engraver, depicting the elderly emperor as a stern aristocrat of raw virtue. His expression is set in grim determination, and the oak-wreath resting on his head is so carefully articulated that the whole appears remarkably life-like. Contrasting with the depth of realism seldom reached in Roman numismatics of the obverse, the figure of Victory on the reverse, with her soft, youthful contours, is one imbued with a hopeful spirit. However noble the message of the reverse of this coin, Tacitus records that Galba was only worthy of the empire before becoming emperor. His shortcomings were his severity and stinginess. While the latter was perhaps a legitimate ‘vice’ considering Nero’s carefree spending on frivolous projects which had depleted the Roman treasury and which caused Galba to levy enormous taxes on those areas of the empire that had been slow to receive him, he also refused most requests for citizenship out-of-hand, however well deserved, and had a number of men sentenced to death without trial. Additionally, he soon came under the control of his co-consul, the praetorian prefect, and a freedman, which further eroded his popularity. His death sentence, however, were his refusals to honor the reward promised on his behalf to the praetorians for their defection of Nero during his long march on Rome, and his spurning of the loyal Otho for Piso as his successor. Galba rightly felt that soldiers should not be bribed, but the rot that had begun when Claudius paid the guardsmen after his elevation had been long established by the late 60s, and the praetorians turned against their emperor, hailing Otho emperor on 15 January AD 69. Galba was executed and decapitated by praetorians near Lacus Curtius, the mysterious open chasm near the Roman Forum. -- source link
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