Watch List notes:

Auction 88 Part I
The Roman Empire
Maximianus Herculius first reign, 286 – 305

Aureus 287, AV 5.05 g. MAXIMIA – NVS P F AVG Laureate head r. Rev. VIRT – VS AVGG Hercules standing r., kneeling on the Cerynean hind, which he seizes by its antlers; in l. field, club. In exergue, P R. C 595. RIC –. Depeyrot 6/10. Calicó 4736.
Very rare and an interesting and fascinating issue. Struck on a very broad
flan and complete, good extremely fine

Ex NAC sale 40, 2007, 839.

Soon after Diocletian assumed supreme power in mid-285 he appointed as co-ruler a comrade-in-arms named Maximian. He was initially invested with the rank of Caesar, but by April 1, 286, Diocletian had raised Maximian to the rank of Augustus. The two ruled jointly for seven years until they expanded their diarchy into a tetrarchy by each appointing a Caesar as their deputy.

Each also chose a god to follow: Jove (Jupiter) for Diocletian and Hercules for Maximian. In Diocletian's new system the emperors were represented as having received their mandate to rule from the gods, and so they adopted the names Jovius and Herculius and, beginning in 287, celebrated divine birthdays – their geminis natalis – on July 21. All of this was important in Diocletian's new world order, for divine parentage made them incalculably more legitimate than any usurper who might claim the purple.

On this aureus Maximian celebrates his membership in the Herculian house. His portrait appears on the obverse, and on the reverse his divine companion Hercules is engaged in his fourth labour, capturing the Cerynean hind. Hercules' twelve labors and many of his other adventures were common themes in art and literature and were as familiar to the Romans as the episodes of the Trojan War or the adventures of Odysseus were to the Greeks.