Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XII 29 September 2016
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Commodus AV Aureus. Rome, AD 190-1. M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT P P, laureate and draped bust right / MIN AVG P M TR P XVI COS VI, Minerva hurrying right, head turned back, holding branch, spear and shield. RIC 222; Calicó 2287; BMC 301, pl. 98.18 (same dies). 7.07g, 20mm, 12h.
Good Extremely Fine. A very fine style portrait of Commodus.
Ex Gemini VIII - Heritage, 14 April 2011, lot 358;
Ex Peus 364, 27 April 2000, lot 197;
Ex Peus 361, 3 November 1999, lot 616.
Commodus is often credited by ancient sources with the near destruction of the Roman Empire, through a combination of disinterest in governance and an all-consuming belief that he was of god-like status. With his accession, says the contemporary historian Cassius Dio, our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, as affairs did for the Romans of that day" (LXXII.36.4).
By the latter years of his reign when this aureus was struck, Commodus believed Hercules was his divine patron, and he worshipped him so intensely that eventually he came to believe himself an incarnation of the mythological hero, reinforcing the image he was cultivating of himself as a demigod who, as the son of Jupiter, was the representative of the supreme god of the Roman pantheon. The growing megalomania of the emperor permeated all areas of Roman life, as is witnessed in the material record by the innumerable statues erected around the empire that had been set up portraying him in the guise of Hercules, and his coinage.
The reverse of this stunning aureus depicts Minerva, daughter of Jupiter and a member of the Capitoline Triad; she had been the patron deity of Domitian, and perhaps ignoring the failure of the goddess to protect his predecessor, Commodus here solicits her favour. The other types of Commodus featured on the coinage of his later years also boldly proclaim his aspirations to divinity, for example the following lot depicting Commodus as Hercules himself. "
Good Extremely Fine. A very fine style portrait of Commodus.
Ex Gemini VIII - Heritage, 14 April 2011, lot 358;
Ex Peus 364, 27 April 2000, lot 197;
Ex Peus 361, 3 November 1999, lot 616.
Commodus is often credited by ancient sources with the near destruction of the Roman Empire, through a combination of disinterest in governance and an all-consuming belief that he was of god-like status. With his accession, says the contemporary historian Cassius Dio, our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, as affairs did for the Romans of that day" (LXXII.36.4).
By the latter years of his reign when this aureus was struck, Commodus believed Hercules was his divine patron, and he worshipped him so intensely that eventually he came to believe himself an incarnation of the mythological hero, reinforcing the image he was cultivating of himself as a demigod who, as the son of Jupiter, was the representative of the supreme god of the Roman pantheon. The growing megalomania of the emperor permeated all areas of Roman life, as is witnessed in the material record by the innumerable statues erected around the empire that had been set up portraying him in the guise of Hercules, and his coinage.
The reverse of this stunning aureus depicts Minerva, daughter of Jupiter and a member of the Capitoline Triad; she had been the patron deity of Domitian, and perhaps ignoring the failure of the goddess to protect his predecessor, Commodus here solicits her favour. The other types of Commodus featured on the coinage of his later years also boldly proclaim his aspirations to divinity, for example the following lot depicting Commodus as Hercules himself. "