The Image of Political Power in the Reign of Nerva, AD 96-98 : Oxford University Press : 9780190648039 : 0190648031 : 31 Aug 2017 : At age 65, Nerva assumed the role of emperor of Rome; just sixteen months later, his reign ended with his death. Nerva's short reign robbed his regime of the opportunity for the emperor's imperial image to be defined in building or monumental art, leaving seemingly little for the art historian or archaeologist to consider. In view of this paucity, studies of Nerva primarily focus on the historical circumstances governing his reign with respect to the few relevant literary sources. The Image of Political Power in the Reign of Nerva, AD 96-98, by contrast, takes the entire imperial coinage program issued by the mint of Rome to examine the "self-representation," and, by extension, the policies and ideals of Nerva's regime. The brevity of Nerva's reign and the problems of retrospection caused by privileging posthumous literary sources make coinage one of the o