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Providentia, Marcus Aurelius Silver Denarius
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Marcus Aurelius (7 Mar 161 - 17 Mar 180 CE), Silver Denarius, RIC III 170, RSC II 881, BMCRE IV 439, Hunter II 37, Cohen III 881, SRCV II -, EF, sharply struck, beautifully toned, radiating flow lines on the obverse, reverse slightly off-centre with some weakness in legends and scattered light porosity, closed flan crack, plain edge, weight 3.25g, composition Ag, diameter 19.0×18.0mm, thickness 3.13mm, die axis 180°, Rome mint, Dec 166 - Dec 167 CE; obverse M ANTONINVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX, laureate head right; reverse TR P [X]XI•IMP IIII COS [III], Providentia, draped, standing half-left, wand over globe in right hand, long sceptre vertical in left; from the Roger Belmar Collection; ex Sovereign Rarities (3 Dec 2022); ex Dipl.-Ing. Adrian Lang Collection, Part II, Leu Numismatik web auction 21 (19 Jul 2022), lot 4265; ex Peus 378 (28 Apr 2004), lot 658; £375.00.
Providentia is most often depicted clothed in a matron’s gown, holding a cornucopia or long sceptre in her left hand and in her right a short wand, which she points to a globe. She holds this globe in her right hand or it lies at her feet. The type is intended to mark the power and wisdom of the emperor, who ruled the Roman world.
Providentia is the personification of the ability to foresee and to make provision for the future. This ability was considered essential for the emperor and providentia was among the embodiments of virtues that were part of the imperial cult. Cicero said that providentia, memoria (memory) and intellegentia (understanding) are the three main components of prudentia, the knowledge what is good or bad or neither.
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