Roman Empire 1 denier Elagabalus - Denarius, Laetitia - 219 Rome VF+

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Obverse: IMP ANTONINVS AVG

Reverse: LAETIT-IA PVBL

The reverse depicts Laetitia, the personification of Public Joy, standing facing, turned to the left. She holds a wreath in her right hand and a rudder resting on a globe in her left hand, attributes symbolising respectively the benefits granted by the ruler and the guidance of the Empire's destiny.

Elagabalus came to power in 218, at around fourteen years of age, following the defeat and death of Macrinus. Originally from Emesa in Syria, he was the high priest of the solar god Elagabal, whose name he adopted and under which he has been known to posterity. His reign was quickly marked by an ambitious religious policy aimed at promoting the cult of this deity within the official Roman religion, which aroused the hostility of part of the Senate and the traditional elites.

Struck in 219, at the beginning of his reign, this denarius played a role in legitimising the new power. The use of Laetitia, an allegory of public joy and prosperity, represents a classic theme of imperial propaganda, intended to present the accession of the young emperor as the prelude to a period of happiness and stability for the Empire. This iconography contrasts with the brevity and difficulties of his reign, which ended with his assassination in 222, when he was approximately eighteen years old.

 

 

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