DIVA PAULINA (Died before 235). Denarius. Rome. Struck under Maximinus Thrax.

Obv: DIVA PAVLINA.
Veiled and draped bust right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO.
Diva Paulina, raising hand and holding sceptre, reclining left on peacock flying right.

RIC 2 (Maximinus).

Coins bearing Paolina's portrait were minted when her husband, the emperor Maximinus, crushed the Alamanni with a series of victories, restoring peace to the Rhine frontier and earning the title of ‘Germanicus Maximus’. At that time, Maximinus also decided to grant his son Maximus the title of ‘princeps iuventutis’, designating him as his successor. Maximinus continued to achieve military successes against the Sarmatians and Dacians on the Danube front, but he never went to Rome to receive his formal investiture during his three-year reign and was always distant from the Senate's positions. The 'patres' did not support him; first they hoped for the insurrection of Gordian I and II (which was harshly repressed in Africa), then they appointed Balbinus and Pupienus as princes, joined by Gordian III, and declared Maximinus 'hostis publicus' (public enemy). As was traditional, the soldiers killed the emperor, and the bodies of Maximinus and Maximus were desecrated and left unburied. This might not have happened if Maximinus had paid more attention to the suggestions of his wife, Paolina. She was pro-Senate and had urged him to adopt a more moderate approach and not to put pressure on the patres, whom the emperor was harassing in order to finance the war in Germany. To date, there are no known portraits of Paolina other than those on coins, in which she is always depicted wearing a veil, thus without a hairstyle that could be used for identification in other contexts. Her husband's image was struck by damnatio memoriae, and hers suffered the same fate.

Condition: Extremely fine.

Weight: 3.11 g.
Diameter: 21 mm.