VEHICVLATIONE ITALIAE REMISSA

CNG 97, Lot: 647. Estimate $2000. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nerva. AD 96-98. Æ Sestertius (31mm, 29.18 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 97. Laureate head right / VEHICVLATIONE ITALIAE REMISSA (With the levy for supplying the imperial transport system being abolished for Italy), S C in exergue, two mules grazing, one left, one right; behind, high-wheeled cart, with pole and harness (collars and traces), tipped up and pointing slightly to left. RIC II 93; Banti 44. Good VF, green-brown surfaces, heavily smoothed and repatinated. Rare.

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 72 (16 May 2013), lot 1564.

The imperial institution of the vehiculatio was a means of providing a more efficient organization of transport and communication between Rome and the empire. Organized under the emperor Augustus, this system provided for thousands of stations (mansiones) to be placed along the imperial highways (viae). These stops supplied fresh transport as well as food and accommodation for imperial travelers, all of which were paid for out of the munus vehicularium, a levy placed upon the local population. As the empire expanded and more imperial traffic used the vehiculatio through Italy to reach the capital, especially under Domitian, the munus vehicularium became ever more burdensome on the small Italian landowners. As part of Nerva’s attempt to placate local dissatisfaction and undo the excesses of his predecessor, he did away with the munus vehicularium in Italy. Instead, the cost for maintaining the vehiculatio now became a regular expenditure of the imperial treasury.