Description
Domitian has gotten a bad rep as the paranoid successor of a popular father and brother. He was the second son of emperor Vespasian and the last of the Flavian Dynasty. His 15-year reign was marked by his strengthening of the Roman economy, a building program which included finishing the Colosseum, and defending the empire’s fringes. The face on this coin is centered and shows a great amount of wear and tear. The name sestertius means "two and one half", referring to its nominal value of two and a half asses (a bronze Roman coin, singular as), a value that was useful for commerce because it was one quarter of a denarius, a coin worth ten asses.