Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3071 6-7 Jan 2019
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Commodus (AD 177-192). AV aureus (20mm, 7.29 gm, 7h). NGC MS 5/5 - 4/5. Rome, AD 178. L • AVREL • COM-MODVS AVG •, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Commodus right, seen from behind / TR P III • IM-P II • COS • P • P •, Castor standing left, spear in left hand, right hand resting on head of horse standing left behind him. RIC III 648.
Ex UBS 78, (9 September 2008), lot 1708; Auction Credit de la Bourse, (Paris, 22 April 1992), lot 63.
This aureus presents us with a splendid image of one of Rome's most dissolute rulers, Commodus, who is credited by Edward Gibbon with nearly single-handedly instigating the Fall of the Roman Empire. He was not alone in this assessment: The Roman historian Dio Cassius said the accession of Commodus marked the Empire's descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust." Certainly other factors were at work, but Commodus' own personal qualities, a strange mixture of indolence and megalomania, played a crucial role in this decline. The polar opposite of his reserved, dutiful father, Commodus indulged his every whim while leaving the administration of Rome to a succession of corrupt favorites. After the execution of his last such vizier in AD 190, he lost all sense of control and launched a nonstop orgy of self-indulgence which all but bankrupted the Empire. His assassination on New Year's Day, AD 192 opened a Pandora's Box of Civil War from which the Empire never fully recovered. Nevertheless, Roman art reached an astounding peak during this era, as witnessed by the many baroque portraits of Commodus and his often beautiful coinage, as seen here.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 30000-40000 USD
Commodus (AD 177-192). AV aureus (20mm, 7.29 gm, 7h). NGC MS 5/5 - 4/5. Rome, AD 178. L • AVREL • COM-MODVS AVG •, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Commodus right, seen from behind / TR P III • IM-P II • COS • P • P •, Castor standing left, spear in left hand, right hand resting on head of horse standing left behind him. RIC III 648.
Ex UBS 78, (9 September 2008), lot 1708; Auction Credit de la Bourse, (Paris, 22 April 1992), lot 63.
This aureus presents us with a splendid image of one of Rome's most dissolute rulers, Commodus, who is credited by Edward Gibbon with nearly single-handedly instigating the Fall of the Roman Empire. He was not alone in this assessment: The Roman historian Dio Cassius said the accession of Commodus marked the Empire's descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust." Certainly other factors were at work, but Commodus' own personal qualities, a strange mixture of indolence and megalomania, played a crucial role in this decline. The polar opposite of his reserved, dutiful father, Commodus indulged his every whim while leaving the administration of Rome to a succession of corrupt favorites. After the execution of his last such vizier in AD 190, he lost all sense of control and launched a nonstop orgy of self-indulgence which all but bankrupted the Empire. His assassination on New Year's Day, AD 192 opened a Pandora's Box of Civil War from which the Empire never fully recovered. Nevertheless, Roman art reached an astounding peak during this era, as witnessed by the many baroque portraits of Commodus and his often beautiful coinage, as seen here.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 30000-40000 USD