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Bertolami Fine Art
Auction 52  8 Nov 2018
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Lot 392

Starting price: 12 000 GBP
Price realized: 13 000 GBP
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Romulus Augustus (475-476), Semissis, Uncertain mint, AD 475-476; AV (g 2,19; mm 15; h 6); D N ROMOLVS AVGVSTVS P F AVG, diademed, draped and cuirassed bust r., Rv. Victory seated r. on cuirass, inscribing VOT / XXXX on shield supported by Genius; in ex. SMA[...]. RIC -; C -; Biaggi E., Giustetto G., Spinoni E., Trattato generale di numismatica medioevale, p. 125 (this coin).
The only one specimen known; good very fine.

Εx Asta Internazionale del Titano 17 (1984), lot 222.

The last legitimate ruler of the Western Roman Empire was Julius Nepos, who remained the constitutional emperor in absentia from his base in Dalmatia. However, traditionally that honour has been incorrectly given to Romulus Augustus (sometimes surnamed Augustulus, "the little emperor"), who, after Nepos fled Italy, was hailed emperor as a figurehead of his father's army. His reign lasted just ten months before Germans under Odovacar withdrew their support and deposed both the young emperor and his father. The Germans allowed the former boy-emperor to live, and provided him with an ample pension so he could engage in an early retirement to an estate on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, where he is said to have lived for at least thirty more years.

Estimate: 20000 GBP
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