Ancient Coin of the Day: Today’s an Othonian anniversary, so here's a quick look at the coins of M. Salvius Otho as he attempts to legitimise his rule as Roman emperor. #ACOTD #Roman #Otho 🧵
Image: RIC Otho 7; ANS 1944.100.39833. Link – numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.1(…
By far Galba’s greatest failure was never to believe that others would seek to do what he had done, i.e. seize the imperial throne. In particular, he grossly underestimated the ambitions of his erstwhile ally, the governor of Lusitania, Marcus Salvius Otho.
Otho most likely ‘tied himself to Galba’s wagon’ from the belief that the elderly princeps (Galba was already 71 at the time of his troops declaring him emperor), who was also childless, would have to declare a successor.
However, Otho was thwarted in this regard as on 10 January AD 69 Galba name Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus as his heir. Otho resorted to armed insurrection, killing both Galba and Piso on 15 January, with the Senate ratifying him as emperor on the same afternoon!
The Obverse of this coin shows Otho's bust, with a rather youthful appearance - perhaps to draw a distinction with the elderly Galba. The Legend IMP M OTHO CAESAR AVG TR P - 'Emperor Marcus Otho Caesar Augustus, with Tribunician Power'.
The presence of TR P on the coin’s Legend is suggestive that this was minted after 28 February AD 69, the date when Otho’s adoption of Tribunician Power – the key imperial power (see Tacitus, Annals 3.56) – was commemorated by the Arval Brethren.
The Reverse shows the personification of Securitas ('Stability'), with a Legend that conveys Otho's maintenance and reinforcement of the security of the Roman people and state.
Otho's coinage was designed to convey messages of continuity, authority, and legitimacy, as on this aureus with a Reverse of Ceres clutching a cornucopia and a Legend affirming Otho's role as Pontifex Maximus.
Image: RIC Otho 20; ANS 1967.153.121. Link – numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.1(…
The Reverse’s personification of Ceres, holding double corn ears and a cornucopia, was doubtless to reinforce the plenty that would flow from Otho’s reign – coupled with a conscious nod towards the importance of the international corn supply that essentially sustained Rome.
The truth, however, is markedly different as – far from the plenty suggested – Rome was actually lacking food in his brief reign, as the Tiber flooded in March AD 69 ruining the granaries and beginning a famine (Tacitus, Histories 1.86; Suetonius, Otho 8).
Perhaps the biggest untruth of Otho's coins was the claim on this aureus that his reign was marked by PAX ORBIS TERRARVM - 'Peace of the World'.
Image: RIC Otho 3; ANS 1980.109.160. Link – numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.1(…
Though Pax was present on coins, the Empire itself was in turmoil, with the legions of Germany under Vitellius already in revolt, an urban population unsettled by the 'coup d'état' who now needed to be courted, and - as yet unnoticed - the pending threat of Vespasian in the east.
Tacitus (Histories 2.31) is cutting in his assessment of Otho: "As the slave of his belly and his palate, [Vitellius] was felt to have brought discredit chiefly upon himself, while the pleasure-seeking, cruel and unscrupulous Otho seemed a deadlier threat to the community."
For more on the coins of Otho, see:
Roche, Paul. “The Public Imagery of the Emperor Otho.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, vol. 57, no. 1, 2008, pp. 108–123.
jstor.org/stable/25598420
#ACOTD #Roman #Otho 🧵
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