Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 67 6 Feb 2020
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Antinous Æ Hemidrachm of Alexandria, Egypt. Dated RY 21 = AD 136/7. ANTINOOV HPѠOC, draped bust left, wearing hem-hem crown / Antinous (as Hermes) on horseback to right, wearing chlamys, holding caduceus with his right hand; L below horse, [KA] before. RPC 6235; Emmett 1347; Köln 1278. 13.39g, 29mm, 11h.
Good Fine. Very Rare.
Antinous' death by accidental drowning in the Nile in October AD 130 was a severe blow to Hadrian, for the youth had been his close companion and confidant for nearly five years, and had accompanied the emperor throughout his great tour of the empire beginning in March 127. Hadrian's marriage to Sabina was an unhappy one, and Antinous has been described as the one person who seems to have connected most profoundly with Hadrian" throughout the latter's life (see R. Lambert, Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous, 1984, p.30). It is unsurprising therefore that Hadrian decreed that Antinous should be elevated to the Roman pantheon as a god, and that a city should be built at the site of his death. What was most unexpected however was that he deified the young man without consulting the Senate, and that he ordered Antinous' image to be placed on coinage across the empire.
The coinage in the name of the deified Antinous was substantial. In all, over thirty cities issued bronzes bearing his image, though none as prolifically as Alexandria in Egypt, where his cult, associated with Osiris, was particularly strong. Hadrian himself, we are told, preferred to associate Antinous with Mercury/Hermes, but across the Empire he was far more widely syncretised with the god Dionysus. A great many busts and statues of his were set up in cities across the Roman world, of which numerous examples survive including the iconic 'Braschi Antinous', now in the sala rotonda of the Vatican Museums. That statue, on whose head modern restorers placed a sort of pine cone, would have originally been topped with a lotus flower or hem-hem crown, as on the present coin type. To create the myriad busts, statues and engraved images Hadrian turned to Greek sculptors to perpetuate the melancholic beauty and diffident manner of Antinous, in the process creating what Caroline Vout (Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome, 2007) described as "the last independent creation of Greco-Roman art". All of his images share certain distinct features, including tousled curls, a perfect Hellenic nasion, and a downcast gaze – that allow him to be instantly recognized."
Good Fine. Very Rare.
Antinous' death by accidental drowning in the Nile in October AD 130 was a severe blow to Hadrian, for the youth had been his close companion and confidant for nearly five years, and had accompanied the emperor throughout his great tour of the empire beginning in March 127. Hadrian's marriage to Sabina was an unhappy one, and Antinous has been described as the one person who seems to have connected most profoundly with Hadrian" throughout the latter's life (see R. Lambert, Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous, 1984, p.30). It is unsurprising therefore that Hadrian decreed that Antinous should be elevated to the Roman pantheon as a god, and that a city should be built at the site of his death. What was most unexpected however was that he deified the young man without consulting the Senate, and that he ordered Antinous' image to be placed on coinage across the empire.
The coinage in the name of the deified Antinous was substantial. In all, over thirty cities issued bronzes bearing his image, though none as prolifically as Alexandria in Egypt, where his cult, associated with Osiris, was particularly strong. Hadrian himself, we are told, preferred to associate Antinous with Mercury/Hermes, but across the Empire he was far more widely syncretised with the god Dionysus. A great many busts and statues of his were set up in cities across the Roman world, of which numerous examples survive including the iconic 'Braschi Antinous', now in the sala rotonda of the Vatican Museums. That statue, on whose head modern restorers placed a sort of pine cone, would have originally been topped with a lotus flower or hem-hem crown, as on the present coin type. To create the myriad busts, statues and engraved images Hadrian turned to Greek sculptors to perpetuate the melancholic beauty and diffident manner of Antinous, in the process creating what Caroline Vout (Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome, 2007) described as "the last independent creation of Greco-Roman art". All of his images share certain distinct features, including tousled curls, a perfect Hellenic nasion, and a downcast gaze – that allow him to be instantly recognized."