DRUSUS AS - AS struck under Titus RESTITUTION COIN rare (JUL2423)

Drusus Æ As. Struck under Titus. Rome, AD 80-81. DRVSVS CAESAR TI AVG F DIVI AVG N, bare head left / IMP T CAES DIVI VESP F AVG REST in two lines around large SC. Cohen 7; RIC 217. 10.46 g, 26 mm, very fne. Rare. 

The only surviving son of Tiberius, Drusus became Caesar in AD 4 on his father's adoption by Augustus. Despite his reportedly violent temper, Drusus displayed promise in military and political life; following the death of Augustus he suppressed the mutiny of the Pannonian legions and was consul in AD 15. He was a successful governor in Illyricum AD 17-20 and served as consul again upon his return to Rome. Since his cousin Germanicus, a descendent of both the Julian and Claudian families, had been adopted by Tiberius, Drusus was not in the line of succession. It is notable then that the honour of tribunitia potestas should be conferred upon Drusus, since this was a distinction reserved for the emperor himself or his immediate successor.