Clodius Albinus Denarius (195-197 AD) - Asclepius, Healer of a Fractured Empire

“Let the gods witness: I accepted the purple as a cure, not a crown.” - Clodius Albinus, as imagined by the Roman mint

The Year of the Five Emperors - A Stage Set for Tragedy

AD 193 was Rome’s annus horribilis. Five men claimed the purple in twelve months. Two were murdered in the palace. One bought the throne at auction. One marched from the Danube. And one Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus was offered it as a consolation prize. Born in Hadrumetum, Africa Proconsularis around AD 150, Albinus was no provincial upstart. A senator of ancient lineage, he had commanded legions in Dacia under Marcus Aurelius, crushed rebellions in Bithynia, and governed Britannia with iron discipline. By 193, he controlled three legions (II Augusta, VI Victrix, XX Valeria Victrix) and the loyalty of the northern frontier. When Didius Julianus was beheaded in June, Septimius Severus needed time. His enemies Pescennius Niger in Syria and Clodius Albinus in Britain commanded half the empire’s legions. Rather than fight on two fronts, Severus did what Rome did best: he negotiated. He named Albinus Caesar official heir and flooded the mint with joint coinage. This denarius, RIC IV 2, is the most eloquent artifact of that fragile alliance: a bare-headed junior emperor on the obverse, and Asclepius, god of medicine, promising SALVS PVBLICA on the reverse.

Obverse: The Reluctant Heir

Clodius Albinus was no courtier. A Numidian-born senator from Hadrumetum, he rose through military grit commanding in Dacia, governing Britain. His coin portrait is austere, almost severe: no beard (unlike Severus), no laurel (reserved for the Augustus). The engraver captured a man in his late 30s disciplined, watchful, proud. The bare head echoes Trajan and Hadrian in their Caesar phase: a visual contract of loyalty. But the alliance was a sham. Severus never intended to share power. By late 194, he named his son Caracalla as Caesar erasing Albinus. The Briton revolted, proclaimed himself Augustus, and marched on Gaul. He lost at Lugdunum in 197; his head ended on a pike in Rome.

Reverse: Asclepius and the Illusion of Healing

Asclepius god of medicine was rare on imperial coinage before the Antonine Plague (165–180). His appearance here is deliberate propaganda:

• Serpent staff = wisdom, renewal
• Patera over altar = sacrifice for public welfare
• SALVS PVBLICA = the state itself is the patient

Severus used the type to signal restoration after Commodus’s tyranny. But for Albinus, it was ironic: he was the bandage, not the cure. The reverse die is shared with early Severan issues (RIC 1), proving the mint’s efficiency and the fiction of partnership.

Asclepius and the Politics of Healing

Asclepius was not a standard imperial type. Before the Antonine Plague (AD 165–180), he appeared rarely mostly on provincial bronze. His prominence here is deliberate. This was post-plague propaganda. Rome had lost millions up to 10% of the population. Severus’s regime needed to project recovery, renewal, legitimacy. But the choice of Asclepius for Albinus’s coin is layered:

• Severus used Aesculapius on his own aurei (RIC 1) to claim divine healing after Commodus.
• Albinus’s version is humbler: smaller altar, no globe, no radiate crown.
• Shared dies with Severus’s SAECVLI FELICITAS issues prove central mint control Albinus had no British mint.

Die Study:

• 6 obverse dies known for Albinus Caesar
• 8 reverse dies for Asclepius
• 3 obverse dies shared with Severus’s MINER VICTRIX type → Proof of coordinated propaganda

The Doomed Partnership

• 31 Dec 192 – Commodus assassinated in his bath; the Severan age begins in blood
• 1 Jan 193 – Pertinax hailed emperor by the Senate, murdered 87 days later by the Praetorians
• 28 Mar 193 – Didius Julianus buys the empire at auction from the ramparts of the Praetorian camp
• 9 Apr 193 – Septimius Severus proclaimed emperor by the Pannonian legions at Carnuntum
• 1 Jun 193 – Severus marches unopposed into Rome; Julianus abandoned and beheaded in the palace
• Jun–Jul 193 – Severus names Clodius Albinus Caesar in a secret pact: Britain stays quiet, Albinus becomes heir
• 193–195 – Rome mint strikes joint propaganda coinage:
• Severus = laureate Augustus
• Albinus = bare-headed Caesar
• Shared reverses (Asclepius, Minerva, Saeculi Felicitas) to sell unity
• Late 194 – Severus elevates Caracalla as Caesar; Albinus is quietly erased from the succession
• Dec 195 – Albinus proclaims himself Augustus in Lyons, crosses to Gaul with British legions
• 19 Feb 197 – Battle of Lugdunum: largest Roman-on-Roman clash in history (~150,000 combatants); Albinus defeated, commits suicide; his family executed; Britain ravaged for a generation

The Pact and Its Betrayal - A Marriage of Convenience

Severus’s Needs - Keep Britain’s three legions (II Augusta, VI Victrix, XX Valeria Victrix) loyal and stationary. Install a senatorial figurehead to pacify the aristocracy still mourning Pertinax

Albinus’s Wants - Survival in a year when emperors lasted weeks. Eventual succession the purple as retirement prize

The Coinage as Contract - Joint denarii struck in large but tightly controlled batches at Rome. Enough silver to pay donatives and silence mutiny. Not enough to bankroll open rebellion

The Betrayal (Late 194) - Severus crushes Niger at Issus → East secured. Marries Julia Domna, fathers Caracalla & Geta → dynasty locked. Elevates Caracalla to Caesar → Albinus erased from the line.

Albinus Strikes Back - Proclaims himself Augustus in Lyons (Dec 195). Opens makeshift mint in Gaul. Issues laureate-head denarii (RIC 7–11) with militant reverses: FIDES LEGIONVM, MINERVA VICTRIX

Too Late - 19 Feb 197 – Lugdunum: bloodiest Roman civil battle; Albinus cornered, suicides; family slaughtered; Britain left in ruins for a generation

 

Why This Coin Matters: A Collector’s Holy Grail

1. The Only Joint Imperial Coinage → Two living emperors, one mint, one lie
2. Medical Iconography in Crisis → Rare use of Asclepius as state propaganda
3. Portrait of a Doomed Heir → Bare head = visual humility before violent fall
4. Year of the Five Emperors Completion → Essential with:
• Pertinax (RIC 1–4)
• Didius Julianus (RIC 1–2)
• Severus (RIC 1–15)
• Niger (Eastern mint)
5. Investment Grade Rarity → undervalued vs. Julianus

Final Thoughts: The Healer Who Could Not Heal Himself

This denarius is a prescription for an incurable state. Clodius Albinus held the staff of Asclepius, but Severus held the scalpel.

The coin survives as:

• A propaganda masterpiece
• A political autopsy
• A silver elegy for loyalty in a time of betrayal

“I offered medicine. They demanded blood.”

For the collector, historian, or philosopher of power, this is the coin where partnership dies, and dynasty is born.