Hadrian, 117-138. Sestertius (Orichalcum, 35 mm, 20.74 g, 6 h), Rome, circa 130-133. HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P Laureate head of Hadrian to right. Rev. EXERCITVS RAETICVS / S C Hadrian standing right on platform, holding scroll in his left hand and raising his right in gesture of address toward a group of four soldiers with a horse, all in military attire and looking up toward the emperor; behind Hadrian, an officer assisting him. BMC -. Cohen -. RIC -. Unique and unpublished save for its previous auction appearance. An important discovery in a highly popular series. Somewhat rough and with minor breaks in patina, otherwise, fine.


Hadrian is best known today as the emperor who traveled the length and breadth of the Roman Empire in order to assess and improve the empire's condition. Naturally, part of this assessment included inspecting military matters. As such, when the famed 'travel series' was introduced in Hadrian's coinage, it included sestertii showing the emperor addressing the troops of the various provincial armies, a so-called adlocutio. In this case, the 'Exercitus Raeticus', or Raetian Army, is addressed, the troops stationed in what is today eastern Switzerland, southern Germany, much of Tyrol in Austria and part of northern Italy.

During his visit there, Hadrian gave Raetia's capital, Augusta Vindelicorum (modern Augsburg), the status of 'municipium', and the province seems to have prospered under his and his successor's reign. Part of Raetia's strategic importance lay in that it shielded Italy from invasion, a fact which would become abundantly clear under Marcus Aurelius when the Danube frontier buckled under the assault of a coalition of Germanic and Sarmatian tribes.