Roman Imperial, Commodus as Heracles, AR Denarius, Rome, 192 AD, megalomanic issue, RIC III 251

By 192 AD, Commodus showed serious signs of mental instability. He had taken to identifying himself with the demi-god Hercules, and had renamed the months of the year, the Roman senate and the annual grain harvest of North Africa after himself. The coinage of this period similarly shows the emperor as Hercules, and abandons traditional Roman types for the simple design of Hercules' club within a wreath.