Hadrian, 117-138, Denarius

Hadrian (AD 117–138), Denarius, AR, Rome, AD 134–138, 3.33 g, 18 mm. Obverse legend HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P with laureate head right. Reverse legend HISPANIA displaying the personification of Hispania reclining left, holding an olive branch; rabbit at her feet. Struck at Rome in the late provincial personification (travel) series. RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) 1533–1539 (var.).

This HISPANIA type belongs to Hadrian’s provinciae series issued late in the reign, depicting regions of the empire associated with his travels and administrative focus; it also reflects Hadrian’s origins at Italica in Hispania Baetica, with the olive branch alluding to Baetican oil production and the rabbit functioning as a long-standing emblem of the Iberian peninsula noted by classical authors.