As of Tiberius with Lightning - RIC 1 2 83

This bronze As was minted under the authority of Tiberius, the second emperor of Rome. Tiberius’ coin focuses on his connection to his adoptive father Augustus and Jupiter, god of the sky and king of the gods. There had been no set precedent for political power to be inherited from father to son, but Augustus had raised Tiberius into various political and military roles to set him up as an obvious successor. Tiberius followed Augustus' example in deifying his adoptive father. This increased his prestige and helped legitimize his claim to power. This coin was minted around 34-37 CE in Rome, towards the end of Tiberius’ life. Suetonius tells us that interestingly, Tiberius chose not to deify his mother, Livia, after her death, even though the senate had asked for it. If Tiberius had done this, he would have had both of his parents as gods, but chose not to.

The fact that Tiberius is still depicting images of Augustus twenty years into his reign, highlights the need on Tiberius’ part to legitimise his right to rule even at its end. The ancient sources that we have are highly biased against Tiberius, and tend towards destroying his character and emperorship. Every action Tiberius committed came under harsh scrutiny even when he was directly emulating Augustus’ actions. What we as historians can discern from these accounts is that Augustus is held in higher regard by the sources and populace, and that his successor is scrutinised exceptionally. Ignoring the biases of these accounts, we know from them that a potential reason Tiberius is attacked by the ancient sources is because he was an absent emperor, spending most of his reign in a private villa away from mainland Italy.

On the obverse is a diademed head of Augustus, facing the left, surrounded by a legend that cannot be fully deciphered. The identifiable part of the legend reads DIVVS AVGVSTVS. Since there are other coins of this type, we are able to see that the full legend reads DIVVS AVGVSTVS PATER. This translates to 'Divine Augustus, the Father'. This is an inscription seen on many other coins honouring Augustus, and was likely used by Tiberius to emphasise his relationship to his adoptive father. You could make the argument that since Tiberius was adopted, rather than born to Augustus, he had a stronger claim to being his successor, having been chosen for this position. However Tiberius ended up in his position due to the untimely deaths of multiple preferred successors. Despite eventually being chosen by Augustus based on his military and political background, he still would have had to expend more energy proving himself worthy of this position to the common people.

On the reverse is a winged fulmen (‘thunderbolt’) between the legend SC (refer to additional information). The thunderbolt is a divine attribute of Jupiter. Jupiter was the ruler of the Roman gods, and had many virtues ascribed to his character, such as justice, leadership, patriotism, and power. These virtues that Jupiter embodies are an example of the attributes of the ideal Roman. The use of Jupiter on this coin also suggests that Tiberius holds these same virtues and as such is the perfect Roman citizen. A parallel has been identified between the figure minting the coin and Jupiter as ‘father of the gods’. For this coin, the parallel is the idea that the emperor is father of the fatherland (Rome) as much as Jupiter is father of the gods. Another message promoted, due to the presence of Jupiter on the coin, could also be that Tiberius has received approval from Jupiter to be the emperor of Rome.

While the only portrait on the coin is of Augustus, the use of the lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of Jupiter. By depicting this on his coins, Tiberius is reinforcing his legitimacy and divine claim to be emperor. The use of the thunderbolt is a recognisable symbol of power to the ancient audience. Furthermore, when Augustus became deified after his death, the use of his image became more powerful in the eyes of the populace. Tiberius was able to use this as part of his propaganda arsenal, as it not only reinforced his familial connection to a god, but also the fact that his father was worthy to become a god in death. This is even more effective when we take into consideration the Roman belief that sons will bear the same or greater power and virtues as their fathers. It is clear to see that Tiberius, in his use of depicting Augustus and Jupiter, was reinforcing ideas of paternal succession and glory to legitimise his right to rule. This coin spreads the message that Tiberius has the approval from Jupiter to rule and that Tiberius shares the god's virtues as an ideal Roman.

Credits:

Story by Olivia Eustace, Jayden Glen, Anna Morete, Sarah MacManus, and Stèf Murison.
Photos by Charlotte Dunn, supplied by the Otago Museum.