Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVIII 29 Sep 2019
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Nero, with Agrippina II, AR Denarius. Rome, AD 55. NERO CLAVD DIVI F CAES AVG GERM IMP TR P COS, jugate busts right of Nero, bareheaded with slight drapery over shoulder, and of Agrippina II, draped and bareheaded / AGRIPP AVG DIVI CLAVD NERONIS CAES MATER, quadriga of elephants left, bearing Divus Claudius, radiate right, holding eagle-tipped sceptre, and Divus Augustus, radiate right, seated facing, holding patera and sceptre; EX S C in left field. RIC 7; BMCRE 8; RSC 4. 3.58g, 19mm, 4h.
Good Very Fine. Rare.
Agrippina, having orchestrated that Claudius' own natural son Britannicus should be passed over in the succession in favour of Agrippina's son Nero by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, initially exercised regency over Nero in the first months of his reign. Indeed, on the earliest Neronian coinage (RIC 1, BMCRE 6, C. 6) which feature confronted busts of the emperor and his mother, the emperor's inscription is not only relegated to the reverse of the coin while Agrippina's occupy the obverse, but was also engraved in the dative case; in short, the coin was in reality an issue of Agrippina, not of Nero. Despite owing his throne to his mother, the relationship of son and mother quickly descended into a power struggle that began in earnest the year this coin was struck. With the immediately succeeding change on the coinage to jugate busts, it must be inferred that Nero was asserting his authority, as the inscriptions are now reversed (Nero's is now on the obverse, his mother's on the reverse). Agrippina began to quietly transfer her support to step-son Britannicus, Nero's rival for the throne, as a way to threaten and regain control of her son, however the emperor poisoned the boy at a family dinner in February AD 55. In AD 58, having ostracised his mother from the imperial court, Nero loaded her onto a self-sinking boat, which was unsuccessful in causing Agrippina's death, but having escaped from the vessel she was met on the shore and murdered by a trio of assassins.
Good Very Fine. Rare.
Agrippina, having orchestrated that Claudius' own natural son Britannicus should be passed over in the succession in favour of Agrippina's son Nero by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, initially exercised regency over Nero in the first months of his reign. Indeed, on the earliest Neronian coinage (RIC 1, BMCRE 6, C. 6) which feature confronted busts of the emperor and his mother, the emperor's inscription is not only relegated to the reverse of the coin while Agrippina's occupy the obverse, but was also engraved in the dative case; in short, the coin was in reality an issue of Agrippina, not of Nero. Despite owing his throne to his mother, the relationship of son and mother quickly descended into a power struggle that began in earnest the year this coin was struck. With the immediately succeeding change on the coinage to jugate busts, it must be inferred that Nero was asserting his authority, as the inscriptions are now reversed (Nero's is now on the obverse, his mother's on the reverse). Agrippina began to quietly transfer her support to step-son Britannicus, Nero's rival for the throne, as a way to threaten and regain control of her son, however the emperor poisoned the boy at a family dinner in February AD 55. In AD 58, having ostracised his mother from the imperial court, Nero loaded her onto a self-sinking boat, which was unsuccessful in causing Agrippina's death, but having escaped from the vessel she was met on the shore and murdered by a trio of assassins.