Marcus Aurelius was the Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180, the fifth of the Five Good Emperors (a term coined by Machiavelli centuries later), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. Despite that, his reign is one of military campaigning, seeking to expand and solidify Rome’s borders. The tragedy that was the devestating Antonine Plague (killing around 5 million) occured during his reign.

He is widely known today for his writings in the field of philosophy, called ‘Meditations’. Marcus was a proponent of Stoicism, the idea that pain and suffering should be borne without complaint, and that the world is best understood without displays of emotion. A popular belief at the time, it faded as Christianity took a greater hold over Roman belief systems. Under his rule, the silver denarius was debased from 93.5% purity to 83.5%.

The coin is the latest in the Roman Emperors series by the Italian mint IPZS. Struck in 3 grams of 0.900 gold and with a slightly disappointing diameter of 13.85 mm, we’re big admirers of this series. Hadrian, Trajan and Augustus were the previous subjects, and Marcus Aurelius follows a similar style. The obverse is of a bust of Aurelius residing in Ephesus Archaeological Museum, Selçuk, Turkey, while the reverse has a close up of an equestrian statue of the Emperor which is in  Rome’s Capitoline Museums. Available from 23 June for €180.00, it has a mintage of 1,000 pieces.

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