Galba, 68-69. Sestertius (Orichalcum, 36 mm, 26.16 g, 6 h), Rome, autumn 68. IMP•SER•GALBA•CAES AVG TR•P Laureate and draped bust of Galba to right, seen from behind.
Rev. S - C Victory advancing left, holding palladium in her right hand and palm frond in her left. BMC 107. Cohen 261. C. M. Kraay: The Aes Coinage of Galba. NNM 133 (1956), 71c (
this coin). Mazzini 261 (
this coin). RIC 352. Sharp and clear, an exceptional coin with a superb, bold and aristocratic portrait of the finest style. With a lovely dark patina and a very impressive pedigree. Very light doubling on the reverse
, otherwise, extremely fine.
Ex Leu 4, 25 May 2019, 617 and Hirsch 160, 23 November 1988, 405, from the collection of Eric Alex von Schulthess-Rechberg (1914-1986, as 'ESR'), Hess-Leu, 23 March 1961, 87, from the collection of Ing. G. Mazzini (1883-1961), ex Münzen & Medaillen XIII, 17-19 June 1954, 651, and from the collection of M. L. Vierordt from Bloemendaal (1866-?), Schulman 139, 5-8 March 1923, 943.
Servius Sulpicius Galba was in many respects the antithesis of Nero. Born in 3 BC into an ancient consular family, he was a rigorous traditionalist, closely associated with the
mos maiorum and the old Roman ideals of discipline, duty, and public service. Galba pursued a distinguished political and military career under the Julio-Claudian emperors, holding a series of important provincial commands and receiving the
ornamenta triumphalia in 46 for his services in Germany and Africa. In AD 60 he was appointed governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, where eight years later he was drawn into the revolt of Vindex against Nero.
Although acclaimed emperor by his troops, Galba initially styled himself
legatus Senatus Populique Romani, pointedly leaving the ultimate decision to the Senate rather than immediately assuming the full imperial title. After Nero had been declared a public enemy and committed suicide in June 68, Galba received news of his recognition as emperor and formally assumed the imperial names and titles. His insistence on traditional authority and strict discipline was central to his public image, but the same severity soon proved politically disastrous: his refusal to pay the expected donative alienated the Praetorian Guard, whose support Otho successfully secured in January 69.
The present coin, struck around the time of Galba’s arrival in Rome in the autumn of 68, is certainly among the most beautiful and impressive of his surviving sestertii. Its exceptionally bold and aristocratic portrait is particularly suited to the image Galba sought to project: an elderly, uncompromising representative of the Roman senatorial tradition after the extravagance of Nero’s final years.
