ARTIC-EG
Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · other
Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying Emperor Tiberius
Description
The front (obverse) of this coin portrayys the head of Emperor Tiberius, facing right, laureate. The back (reverse) portrays the radiate head of Augustus, also facing right. In 4 CE, Tiberius was adopted by Emperor Augustus as his son. When Augustus died in 14, he was succeeded by Tiberius. Incluing imagery of the divine Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, helped Tiberius to advertise his inherited right to rule, as Augustus’s heir.
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
An obverse/reverse view of a small silver-colored coin showing a Roman imperial portrait and surrounding script-like lettering.
The image presents two sides of the same coin. On the left (obverse), a right-facing male portrait with wavy hair and short facial hair is shown in relief. On the right (reverse), the portrait appears again in profile (or a related imperial bust), surrounded by additional small raised characters arranged in a circular band; the lettering is not clearly legible in the provided resolution. No Egyptian hieroglyphs are distinguishable; the inscriptions appear Roman/Greek-style rather than Egyptian. The catalogue description specifies a billon tetradrachm portraying Emperor Tiberius; the portrait style and imperial iconography are consistent with a Roman emperor, though the exact name “Tiberius” (e.g., as readable letters) and any cartouche cannot be confirmed from the image quality. No explicit deity figures are visible.
royal
Roman Imperial (reign of Tiberius), exact date unclear
good
Royals
Tiberius (implied by catalogue; not directly readable)
Materials
Billon (silver-colored metal)
Signs
Imperial portrait + circular inscription (illegible)
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
Obverse: TIBERIOS KAISAR [SEBASTOS] Reverse: [THEOS] SEBAS[TOS]
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 142244 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.