Ancient Rome - 54-68 CE Nero AR Denarius NGC Choice VF

Nero 54-68 CE, AR Denarius. Struck at Rome Mint. Obverse presents a laureate head of Nero facing right: NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS. Reverse displays Salus, the Roman goddess of safety and well-being (welfare, health and prosperity) for both the individual and the state. The draped figure of Salus is seated upon an ornamented, high-backed throne, facing left. She is holding patera in her right hand and rests her left elbow upon the throne. SALVS is below in exergue. Both sides offer rich, golden patina.

Bust of Nero, Musei Capitolini, Rome.

History will never forget Nero's cruel and hedonistic ways. In his own time he was despised by rich and poor, freedman and slave. This dissatisfaction with the indulgent emperor reached a fever pitch in 64 AD. Nero enjoyed singing, and at one point he sang about the devastation of Troy, which many over the centuries have wrongly mistaken for "fiddling" while Rome burned in the year 64 AD. Nevertheless, with much of central Rome smoldering in burnt ruins, Nero, employing extremely poor judgment, decided to build a "Golden House"--the Domus Aurea--for his pleasure. Such excess angered the common people of Rome. But such narcissism also enraged many high-ranking members of Nero's court, who worried for their professional and personal well being under the ever more irrational Nero.

Thus a conspiracy to remove the emperor and replace him with Gaius Calpurnius Piso, a prosperous senator, was planned and nearly succeeded. It was at the last moment that a freed slave named Milichus learned of the conspiracy. His wife insisted that he tell Nero's secretary.  After learning of the plot, Nero executed several important Romans, and forced the philosopher Seneca the Younger, the poet Lucan, and the writer Petronius to take their own lives, for they were suspects in the intrigue. But this was just a respite, for Nero killed himself on June 9, 68 AD, to avoid being executed as a public enemy of Rome.