Denarius (Coin) Portraying Emperor Augustus (2 BCE-4 CE): Artwork and History

Denarius (Coin) Portraying Emperor Augustus (2 BCE-4 CE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Roman; minted in Lugdunum (now Lyon, France).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front (obverse) of this coin portrays the emperor Augustus, facing right. On the back (reverse), Caius Caesar and Lucius Caesar (born to Marcus Agrippa and Julia the Edler) are standing, each resting a hand on a shield. Two spears, a lituus (curved augural staff) and a simpulum (ladle with long handle) are between them. The brothers were adopted by Augustus (their grandfather) as joint-heirs but died at relatively young ages (21 and 18, respectively) before they could rule. This coin commemorates their appointments as consul designatus.

Object facts

• Title: Denarius (Coin) Portraying Emperor Augustus
• Date: 2 BCE-4 CE
• Artist attribution: Roman; minted in Lugdunum (now Lyon, France)
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Silver
• Dimensions: Diam.: 2 cm (13/16 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1923.1253

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. William Nelson Pelouze

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.