Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVII 28 Mar 2019
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Nero AV Aureus. Rome, AD 64-66. NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS, laureate head right / AVGVSTVS AVGVSTA, Nero, radiate and togate, standing to left, holding patera in right hand and sceptre in left; to right, his wife Poppaea Sabina, veiled and draped, standing to left, holding patera in right hand and cornucopiae in left. RIC 44 and 56; Calicó 401; BMCRE 52-3; BN 199-200; Biaggi 220. 7.29g, 19mm, 6h.
Extremely Fine; in excellent condition for this desirable issue.
Ex Auktionen Frühwald, Auction 100, 25 October 2012, lot 217.
According to the accounts of Plutarch and Suetonius, Nero became enamoured by Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Otho, a courtier and close friend of the emperor around AD 59. The two were divorced, and Otho was given the position of governor of Lusitania and ordered to relocate to Hispania. Tacitus claims that soon after the divorce, Poppaea pressured Nero to murder his mother Agrippina, and divorce and execute his first wife Claudia Octavia, with whom he had no children. Nero indeed divorced Octavia, claiming she was barren, and imprisoned her on the island of Pandateria on the charge of adultery. Poppaea became Nero's second wife in AD 62 and bore him a daughter, Claudia Augusta, in January the following year.
Suetonius claims that Poppaea was expecting another child in AD 65, when she was kicked to death by the emperor (Life of Nero, 35.3). Both Cassius Dio and Tacitus support the claim that Nero killed his wife, though the bias of all three historians against Nero casts doubt over the reliability of their accounts. Indeed, Poppaea may have died of natural causes perhaps related to childbirth, a theory supported by the bestowal of divine honours upon her after her death, and the state funeral that she was afforded.
Extremely Fine; in excellent condition for this desirable issue.
Ex Auktionen Frühwald, Auction 100, 25 October 2012, lot 217.
According to the accounts of Plutarch and Suetonius, Nero became enamoured by Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Otho, a courtier and close friend of the emperor around AD 59. The two were divorced, and Otho was given the position of governor of Lusitania and ordered to relocate to Hispania. Tacitus claims that soon after the divorce, Poppaea pressured Nero to murder his mother Agrippina, and divorce and execute his first wife Claudia Octavia, with whom he had no children. Nero indeed divorced Octavia, claiming she was barren, and imprisoned her on the island of Pandateria on the charge of adultery. Poppaea became Nero's second wife in AD 62 and bore him a daughter, Claudia Augusta, in January the following year.
Suetonius claims that Poppaea was expecting another child in AD 65, when she was kicked to death by the emperor (Life of Nero, 35.3). Both Cassius Dio and Tacitus support the claim that Nero killed his wife, though the bias of all three historians against Nero casts doubt over the reliability of their accounts. Indeed, Poppaea may have died of natural causes perhaps related to childbirth, a theory supported by the bestowal of divine honours upon her after her death, and the state funeral that she was afforded.