ROMAN IMPERIAL COINS, Hadrian (117-138), Sestertius, Rome, c. 119, laureate and draped heroic bust right, rev. RELIQUVA VETERA HS NOVIES MILL ABOLITA S C, lictor standing left, holding fasces, setting fire to heap of bonds on the ground to left with brand, 26.66g/7h (RIC 590; Strack 555). Good very fine, light green patina, very rare
£1,200-1,500

This remarkable issue records the cancellation in 119 of arrears of debt due to the fiscus, amounting to 900 million sestertii. This was obviously a bid by Hadrian’s new regime to gain popularity with the citizens of Rome after the ‘discovery’ of a plot involving four leading senators (including Lusius Quietus) and the demand by the Senate of their deaths, they were hunted down and killed out of hand. Because Hadrian was not in Rome at the time, he was able to claim that Attianus, the emperor’s former guardian, had acted on his own initiative