Watch List notes:

THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Hadrian, 117-138

Aureus 134-138, AV 7.35 g. HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P Bareheaded, draped and cuirassed bust r. Rev. Nilus reclining l., holding cornucopiae and reed, leaning on rock; behind, hippopotamus among reeds and below, crocodile l. C –. BMC 866. RIC 313 var. (not cuirassed). Calicó 1162.
Very rare. A fine portrait of high style and a fascinating reverse
type, about extremely fine


The Nile and the Tiber were the two most important rivers in the Roman world. The Niles annual inundation allowed the farmlands along its banks to be fertilized anew every year – no minor concern to the Egyptians and the Romans who relied on Egyptian grain to feed their people. To Hadrian the river had further significance as the place where his lover AntinoŸs perished in 130, six years before this aureus was struck. We shall never know whether his drowning in the Nile waters was an accident or a ritual suicide to benefit the emperors failing health, but we can be sure the river had special meaning to Hadrian in his waning years.

The river-god is represented as a bearded man, nude to the waist, reclining against a sphinx, holding a cornucopia and a river-reed; a hippopotamus stands before him and a crocodile floats on the waters of the Nile below. At Tivoli Hadrian had statues of the Nile and the Tiber side-by-side to adorn the Canopus, the most famous attraction on the grounds of his villa. Hadrian was nostalgic and wanted to recreate memorable aspects of his travels – in this case the Canopus was a long pool imitating the canal that linked the cities of Alexandria and Canopus.

There is a great variety from die to die on these coins, and on some other examples Nilus rests upon an urn or a rock, the hippopotamus is replaced by two reeds or is accompanied by reeds; and on others there is no identifying inscription. The most elaborate versions occur on sestertii. The central design remains more or less the same as on the aurei, though children are added in most mischevious ways: climbing on the cornucopia, dancing in the background among reeds, and perhaps even picking fruit that flows from the mouth of the cornucopia. On at least one die the usually inanimate hippopotamus wanders toward Nilus, raising its snout toward his cornucopia, perhaps to nibble on some fruit.

There can be no doubt these images (on the sestertii, in particular) are copied from statuary, perhaps represented by a surviving copy now in the Vatican. That statue, which benefits from the scope of a massive sculpture, includes sixteen childlike figures of putti, symbolizing the number of cubits required to achieve the perfect annual flood level of the Nile. On one die used to strike sestertii there are four children, which Hill suggests in that case represent the four seasons rather than putti.