PERTINAX. Æ As. Rome, 1 January – 28 March 193 AD.

Obv. IMP CAES P HELV PERTIN AVG Laureate head right
Rev. PROVIDENTIAE DEORVM COS II SC Providentia standing left, holding up right hand to star, left hand on breast.

Cohen 50 (80 F)

The son of a freedman, Publius Helvius Pertinax never-the-less seems to have espoused all the traditional Roman virtues. He received a good education and his first career was that of a teacher, but he soon gave that up and went into the army. His abilities were great and he rapidly advanced to high rank. Made a senator by Marcus Aurelius and consul in 175, he governed several provinces, including Syria, Britain and Africa (where he suppressed a revolt in 188-189). By 192, when he entered into his second consulship, he was prefect of Rome, and almost had to have known about the conspiracy formed late that year to dispatch Commodus, who intended to assume his eighth consulate on 1 January 193 dressed as a gladiator, an action that was viewed with horror by virtually all senior governmental officials. After the murder, Pertinax was made emperor, but like Galba 124 years earlier, his reforms and economies enraged the soldiery, especially the Praetorians, and in a mutiny they invaded the palace and murdered him on 28 March, 193. [Leu]

Even rarer than the large bronze. Needs to be upgraded though!