VEHICVLATIONE ITALIAE REMISSA
780. Nerva. AD 96-98. Æ Sestertius (31mm, 29.18 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 97. Laureate head right / VEHICVLATIONE ITALIAE REMISSA (With the levy for supplying the imperial transport system being abolished for Italy), S C in exergue, two mules grazing, one left, one right; behind, high-wheeled cart, with pole and harness (collars and traces), tipped up and pointing slightly to left. RIC II 93; Banti 44. Good VF, green-brown patina, some smoothing, a few cleaning marks. Rare. ($2000) The imperial institution of the vehiculatio was a means of providing a more efficient organization of transport and communication between Rome and the empire. Organized under the emperor Augustus, this system provided for thousands of stations (mansiones) to be placed along the imperial highways (viae). These stops supplied fresh transport as well as food and accommodation for imperial travelers, all of which were paid for out of the munus vehicularium, a levy placed upon the local population. As the empire expanded and more imperial traffic used the vehiculatio through Italy to reach the capital, especially under Domitian, the munus vehicularium became ever more burdensome on the small Italian landowners. As part of Nerva’s attempt to placate local dissatisfaction and undo the excesses of his predecessor, he did away with the munus vehicularium in Italy. Instead, the cost for maintaining the vehiculatio now became a regular expenditure of the imperial treasury.
Woytek Plate Coin
781. Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (35mm, 27.50 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 101-102. Laureate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder, balteus over right shoulder, globe at point of neck / Pax seated left, holding olive branch and scepter. RIC 432 var. (bust type); Woytek 107i (this coin, illustrated); Banti 336-7 var. (bust type). Good VF, brown surfaces, some red, areas of porosity. Very rare. ($750) From the Archer M. Huntington Collection, ANS 1001.1.23056. This rare portrait type shows Trajan wearing a balteus, a belt used to suspend a sword.
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