Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
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Trajan AV Aureus. Rome, AD 101-102. IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM, laureate bust right, slight drapery on far shoulder / P•M•TR P• COS•IIII•P•P, Hercules standing facing on low base, holding club in right hand and lion skin in left. RIC 49 var. (bust type); C. 231 var.; BMCRE 84; Calicó 1053a (this coin); MIR 99b (this coin cited). 7.24g, 20mm, 7h.
Good Extremely Fine. Very Rare; only three other examples on CoinArchives.
This coin cited in B. Woytek, Moneta Imperii Romani 14 (2010);
This coin published in X. Calicó, Los Aureos Romanos (2002);
Ex Bank Leu Fixed Price List, December 1990, 5;
Ex Hess-Leu 49, 27 April 1971, lot 354;
Ex Baron Friedrich von Schennis Collection, J. Hirsch XXXIII, 17 November 1913, lot 1217;
Ex Ernst Herzfelder Collection, J. Hirsch XXIX, 9 November 1910, lot 968.
Trajan was the first of the Roman emperors to depict the figure and attributes of Hercules on his coinage. This was perhaps on account of Trajan having been born in Italica in southern Spain where Hercules was particularly venerated as Hercules Gaditanus (the name pertaining to the temple to Hercules outside the Phoenician city of Gadir on the southern coast of Spain). Strack argued that this type is a depiction of the cult-image of Hercules Gaditanus, and though the image is certainly suggestive of being a representation of a cult-statue, there is no corroborating evidence (Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts. I. Die Reichsprägung des Traian, Stuttgart, 1931). Indeed, the reverse types of Hadrian make specific reference to Hercules Gaditanus and depict Hercules standing from an altogether different viewpoint, with the attribute of the apples of the Hesperides rather than the lion skin (see RIC 125).
An equally likely source for the representation may have been the statue that stood near the Ara Maxima Herculis Invicti, the great altar to the hero in the Forum Boarium in Rome. This was a sacred spot which legend tells us was where Hercules killed the giant Cacus who had stolen some of the cattle of Geryon from him (for the full story see Livy 1.7). Despite this, the gilded bronze statue discovered on the site of the Forum Boarium, now housed by the Capitoline Museum of Rome, also lacks the attribute of the lion skin.
Lacking a clear source for the representation, this rare aureus is best understood within the context of the close association Trajan cultivated between himself and Hercules. The orations addressed to Trajan by Dio Chrysostom directly identify the emperor with Hercules, a comparison also made by Pliny (see Dio Chrysostom, On Kingship A, 84 and Pliny, Panegyricus, 14.5). A series of quadrantes struck under Trajan make the same equation, depicting Hercules in the place of the emperor on the obverse, alongside his imperial titles (RIC 698, 700-2). In another numismatic representation, the column celebrating Trajan's victory over the Dacians is depicted in the form of a club resting on a lionskin pedestal (see RIC 581, pl. XI, 202), likening the emperor's triumph to a Herculean labour. A statue in the collection of the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome makes the association most clear, depicting Trajan as Hercules-Silvanus, draped with a lionskin in much the same manner as Hercules depicted on the aureus presented here (for further discussion, see O. J. Hekster, Propagating power: Hercules as an example for second-century emperors in Herakles and Hercules, 2003, pp. 20-35).
Good Extremely Fine. Very Rare; only three other examples on CoinArchives.
This coin cited in B. Woytek, Moneta Imperii Romani 14 (2010);
This coin published in X. Calicó, Los Aureos Romanos (2002);
Ex Bank Leu Fixed Price List, December 1990, 5;
Ex Hess-Leu 49, 27 April 1971, lot 354;
Ex Baron Friedrich von Schennis Collection, J. Hirsch XXXIII, 17 November 1913, lot 1217;
Ex Ernst Herzfelder Collection, J. Hirsch XXIX, 9 November 1910, lot 968.
Trajan was the first of the Roman emperors to depict the figure and attributes of Hercules on his coinage. This was perhaps on account of Trajan having been born in Italica in southern Spain where Hercules was particularly venerated as Hercules Gaditanus (the name pertaining to the temple to Hercules outside the Phoenician city of Gadir on the southern coast of Spain). Strack argued that this type is a depiction of the cult-image of Hercules Gaditanus, and though the image is certainly suggestive of being a representation of a cult-statue, there is no corroborating evidence (Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts. I. Die Reichsprägung des Traian, Stuttgart, 1931). Indeed, the reverse types of Hadrian make specific reference to Hercules Gaditanus and depict Hercules standing from an altogether different viewpoint, with the attribute of the apples of the Hesperides rather than the lion skin (see RIC 125).
An equally likely source for the representation may have been the statue that stood near the Ara Maxima Herculis Invicti, the great altar to the hero in the Forum Boarium in Rome. This was a sacred spot which legend tells us was where Hercules killed the giant Cacus who had stolen some of the cattle of Geryon from him (for the full story see Livy 1.7). Despite this, the gilded bronze statue discovered on the site of the Forum Boarium, now housed by the Capitoline Museum of Rome, also lacks the attribute of the lion skin.
Lacking a clear source for the representation, this rare aureus is best understood within the context of the close association Trajan cultivated between himself and Hercules. The orations addressed to Trajan by Dio Chrysostom directly identify the emperor with Hercules, a comparison also made by Pliny (see Dio Chrysostom, On Kingship A, 84 and Pliny, Panegyricus, 14.5). A series of quadrantes struck under Trajan make the same equation, depicting Hercules in the place of the emperor on the obverse, alongside his imperial titles (RIC 698, 700-2). In another numismatic representation, the column celebrating Trajan's victory over the Dacians is depicted in the form of a club resting on a lionskin pedestal (see RIC 581, pl. XI, 202), likening the emperor's triumph to a Herculean labour. A statue in the collection of the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome makes the association most clear, depicting Trajan as Hercules-Silvanus, draped with a lionskin in much the same manner as Hercules depicted on the aureus presented here (for further discussion, see O. J. Hekster, Propagating power: Hercules as an example for second-century emperors in Herakles and Hercules, 2003, pp. 20-35).