Nerva as Supreme Military Commander

As Nerva’s coinage has been studied almost exclusively with historical hindsight, and with the biases of later historians in mind, there is an impulse to read Nerva’s “weak” character into his coinage. This bias is most pronounced on his coinage bearing military themes, which are interpreted as “apologetic,” “hopeful,” or a “desperate plea” to the army to forestall mutiny. State-sanctioned art did not operate in this way and always presented the emperor positively. Reinterpreted in the context of historical representations, the martial imagery on the coinage was traditional and to be expected of the emperor, who had always played the role of supreme military commander. Although often understood as courting the sympathies of the army, many types are excessively rare, suggesting they had little communicative potential in the Roman world. Those proclaiming the “harmony of the armies” are common throughout the Roman Empire and spoke to a broad audience.