This interesting Civil War type was struck for Vitellius, perhaps by his commander Fabius Valens, in southern Gaul shortly before the First Battle of Bedriacum, which saw the annihilation of Otho’s forces in mid-April, AD 69. The figure of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus invokes the invincible might of Rome, while the figure of Vesta, who was the goddess of the Rome’s sacred hearth, symbolizes the Empire’s permanence. Coincidentally, the only priestly college in Rome with full-time acolytes was the order of Vestal Virgins, whose duty it was to keep Vesta’s flame continuously alight.

Although all Civil War coinage of AD 68-69 is rare today, it was originally struck on a vast scale in order to pay for the wartime expenses of various imperial contenders during this tumultuous period. The types are all anonymous in that they do not portray any of the figures involved, although one issue probably struck under Galba does indeed show the portrait of the deified emperor Augustus.