Quite what
is represented on the reverse of Nero’s Decursio coinage has been the subject
of debate. Nero never led troops into battle and a military parade or exercises
seems unlikely. Given his interest in the arts is is postulated that this is part
of the performance of the lusus Troiae, a mock battle described in Virgil’s Aenid
(V, 545-605) as the climax to the games commemorating the first anniversary of
the death of Anchises.
My coin is
a product of a Balkan mint, perhaps Perinthus, poorly documented and described
in the revised RIC volume of the period and similarly treated in the appropriate
RPC volume too. The Rome mint analogue is RIC 104. What suggests that this is a
Balkan mint are the dimples in the centre of both the obverse and reverse of
this coin, a common feature of provincial base metal mintages.
