Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVII 28 Mar 2019
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Nero Claudius Drusus (father of Claudius) Æ Sestertius. Rome, AD 41-54. NERO CLAVDIVS DRVSVS GERMANICVS IMP, bare head left / TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P M TR P IMP P P, Claudius, togate, seated to left on a curule chair atop a globe and piled weapons and armour, holding olive branch and scroll; SC below. RIC (Claudius) 93; C. 8; BMCRE 157. 27.37g, 35mm, 6h.
Extremely Fine; beautiful 'Tiber' patina, with extraordinary preservation of fine detail.
Acquired from Editions V. Gadoury, Monaco;
Ex 'A Collection of Roman Aurei, Sestertii and late Empire Solidi'.
This remarkable sestertius is part of a series of bronze coins issued by Claudius to celebrate his father's military triumphs. The younger brother of the future emperor Tiberius, Drusus was born in 38 BC to Livia Drusilla and Tiberius Claudius Nero. Livia divorced Drusus' father only three months after the birth for the emperor Augustus, who treated his stepson most favourably. Augustus allowed Drusus to progress quickly in his career in 19 BC by granting him the ability to hold all public offices five years before the minimum age and arranged for his advantageous marriage to Antonia Minor, the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor. In his lifetime Nero Claudius Drusus was one of the most celebrated military commanders of the age, leading the first Roman legions across the Rhine and rapidly accruing a string of victories and conquests in Germania; in the course of his Germanic campaigns Drusus sought out multiple Germanic (at least three) chieftains, challenging and beating them in single combat. The sources are ambiguous, but imply that at some point he claimed the spolia opima (the arms and armour taken by a a Roman general from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat) from a Germanic king, thus becoming the fourth and final Roman to gain this honour, the most prestigious any Roman general could aspire to.
Extremely Fine; beautiful 'Tiber' patina, with extraordinary preservation of fine detail.
Acquired from Editions V. Gadoury, Monaco;
Ex 'A Collection of Roman Aurei, Sestertii and late Empire Solidi'.
This remarkable sestertius is part of a series of bronze coins issued by Claudius to celebrate his father's military triumphs. The younger brother of the future emperor Tiberius, Drusus was born in 38 BC to Livia Drusilla and Tiberius Claudius Nero. Livia divorced Drusus' father only three months after the birth for the emperor Augustus, who treated his stepson most favourably. Augustus allowed Drusus to progress quickly in his career in 19 BC by granting him the ability to hold all public offices five years before the minimum age and arranged for his advantageous marriage to Antonia Minor, the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor. In his lifetime Nero Claudius Drusus was one of the most celebrated military commanders of the age, leading the first Roman legions across the Rhine and rapidly accruing a string of victories and conquests in Germania; in the course of his Germanic campaigns Drusus sought out multiple Germanic (at least three) chieftains, challenging and beating them in single combat. The sources are ambiguous, but imply that at some point he claimed the spolia opima (the arms and armour taken by a a Roman general from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat) from a Germanic king, thus becoming the fourth and final Roman to gain this honour, the most prestigious any Roman general could aspire to.