Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180). AV aureus (20mm, 7.18 gm, 6h). NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5. Rome, December AD 162-December AD 163. •M•ANTONINVS AVG IMP II, bare headed, draped and cuirassed bust of Marcus Aurelius right, seen from behind / SALVTI AVGVSTOR TR P XVII, Salus standing facing, head left, scepter in left hand, feeding out of patera, in right hand, a snake coiled around and rising from altar to left; COS III in exergue. RIC III 75. Calicó 1913. This reverse of this beautiful gold aureus depicts Salus, goddess of healing, and invokes her help in preserving"health of the emperors." Marcus Aurelius was never in the best of health and his youthful letters to his mentor Fronto, serendipitously preserved in a medieval palimpsest, record his frequent complaints of chills, fevers, chest colds, and other varying illnesses. As emperor, the stresses of office were exacerbated by frequent bouts of gastric and respiratory trouble. He was fortunate, then, to have the services of Galen, the greatest physician of his age, who kept him going with a variety of treatments, all carefully recorded in his journals. Galen was also needed as a kind of minister of public health to fight the terrible plague, perhaps smallpox, that swept the classical world after AD 163, carrying off up to half the Roman Empire's population. In such an age, invocations for the health of the rulers and the general populace become increasingly common on the Roman coinage.

HID09801242017

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