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Laetitia, the personification of gladness and happiness.
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Faustina Junior, wife of Marcus Aurelius. Augusta, 147-175/6 CE.
Æ As (25 mm, 8.6 gm), Rome mint, 161-175 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust right, wearing circlet of pearls, hair in chignon behind.
Rev: LAETITIA SC, Laetitia standing right, holding scepter and wreath.
RIC-1657; Sear-5300; BMC-987; Cohen-152.
Laetitia personifies happiness, and as such, she resembles Hilaritas. There seems to be no set iconography for her and she has a variety of attributes: she may hold a scepter, ears of grain, a wreath, an anchor or a rudder on globe.
Jones (1990), p. 156, states that on the coins of empresses, Laetitia may signal a birth in the Imperial family.
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