AncientCoinArt.com Presents

Tessera V of Augustus

Augustus AE21mm Tessera. Radiate head left / V withing decorated border.

Lot No.3677. VF/gF.

$ 155.

Current theories about these coin-like items are that they were part of some kind of game, or possibly admission tickets to the games, the numbers designating specific numbered entryways to the Roman Colosseum.

Avgvstvs was born Gaius Octavius in September, 63 BC. His father died when he was four, and his grand-uncle Julius Caesar took an interest in him. He became Caesar's heir and adopted son by Caesar's will. He emerged victorious after 13 years of civil war, defeating the men who had killed Caesar, and then his erstwhile ally Marc Antony. He gradually assumed dominant civil powers, although he maintained the fiction of being the 'Princeps', or first among equals. He was voted the name 'Augustus' in 27 BC, and dated his rule from 23 BC. He peacefully transformed Rome from a republic to an empire, and died of natural causes on August 19, 14 AD.