Obverse: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III, laureate head of Antoninus Pius facing right.

Reverse: IMPERATOR II S C, Victory, advancing right, holding wreath and palm.

RIC 731b. [Rome, AD 143-144].

Diameter: 27 mm. Weight: 11.6 g.

A beautiful copper As of Antoninus Pius struck in Rome in AD 143-144. One of the first actions Antoninus Pius made as emperor was to send Q. Lollius Urbicus, a previous governor of Germania Inferior to Britain to quell a number of revolts. While most of the sources note the Brigantes tribe of Northumbria as the primary focus of these events, much of his campaigning was against the Scottish tribes beyond Hadrian’s wall. His campaigns were successfully completed by 144, after which Urbicus and the Legio II Augusta built the Antonine Wall – a 39-mile-long earthwork some 99 miles north of Hadrian’s wall. As a result, the Senate acclaimed Antoninus as Imperator in A.D. 143 for the second time. This reverse of this coin alludes to that event, with its depiction of winged Victory symbolizing military success. However, the campaign was largely political rather than strategic – much of the area of protected by the wall was barren unfertile land, and the wall was abandoned only eight years after completion. It was briefly repaired and regarrisoned under Septimius Severus in A.D. 208, leading to it sometimes being referred to as the Severan Wall.