Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIX 26-27 Mar 2020
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Antinous (favourite of Hadrian) Medallic Æ39 (8 Assaria?) of Nicomedia, Bithynia. AD 134. HRΩC ANTINOOC, bare head of Antinous to right / H ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙC NIKOMEΔEIA, bull with crescent moon on flank standing to right. SNG von Aulock 7102 = RPC 1093.4 (this coin, from the same obverse die as RPC 1094 = H.-C. von Mosch, SNR 80, 2001, p. 123, pl. 13, 12 corr.); Blum p. 45, 1 = Waddington, Recueil Général p. 522, 45, and pl. 90, 6; cf. R. Pudill, Antinoos, Münzen und Medaillons, Ragensstauf 2014, 'Antinous-Apis oder Antinoos-Attis-Men' pp. 26-30, M18. 38.05g, 39mm, 5h.
Very Fine; even brass-brown; seventh and finest recorded example.
This coin published in Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum. Sammlung von Aulock (Berlin, 1957-1968);
This coin published at Roman Provincial Coinage Online (rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk);
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Triton VII, 12 June 2004, lot 723;
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Triton IV, 5 December 2000, lot 358;
Ex Münzen und Medaillen Basel Auction 52, 19-20 June 1975, lot 643;
Ex Hans von Aulock Collection.
Antinous was a Greek youth from Claudiopolis in Bithynia of striking beauty who in AD 128 is recorded to have been part of his personal retinue of Hadrian on a tour of the Greek East of the empire which included attending the Eleusinian mysteries, consulting the Delphic Oracle, visiting the major cities and shrines of Asia Minor and Egypt. In October 130 at the time of the festival of Osiris, god of fertility and afterlife, the entourage was sailing up the Nile when Antinous drowned mysterious circumstances. Hadrian is reported to have been devastated by the death and at his request Antinous was deified and worshipped both the Greek East and Latin West.
The reign of Hadrian was one of artistic revival inspired by classical Greece and the last era which produced genuinely creative Roman official art. The now divine ephebe was immortalised by the best artists of the day with magnificent statues, reliefs and coins depicting him with the ideal features of Hellenistic male beauty in a variety of syncretic guises, predominately those representing him as a hero (heros) or god (theos), which according to the historian Dio Cassius could be found 'in the entire world' (Romaika, 69.11.4). His coins were only issued by mints the Greek East to commemorate special local events and festivals organised by local Romano-Greek elites, something the Senate in Rome was not ready to decree with its special seal of approval for bronze coins, S C (Senatus Consulto).
The reverse type displaying a bull marked on the flank with a crescent moon, also issued by the mints of Hadrianotherae and Mytilene, is likely to be connected to the 'taurobolium', a bull sacrifice practiced from the mid 2nd century AD in connection with the cult of the great Anatolian mother goddess Kybele, her son Attis, and Mēn the Phrygian lunar god, all connect to oriental concepts of mystery and afterlife.
Very Fine; even brass-brown; seventh and finest recorded example.
This coin published in Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum. Sammlung von Aulock (Berlin, 1957-1968);
This coin published at Roman Provincial Coinage Online (rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk);
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Triton VII, 12 June 2004, lot 723;
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Triton IV, 5 December 2000, lot 358;
Ex Münzen und Medaillen Basel Auction 52, 19-20 June 1975, lot 643;
Ex Hans von Aulock Collection.
Antinous was a Greek youth from Claudiopolis in Bithynia of striking beauty who in AD 128 is recorded to have been part of his personal retinue of Hadrian on a tour of the Greek East of the empire which included attending the Eleusinian mysteries, consulting the Delphic Oracle, visiting the major cities and shrines of Asia Minor and Egypt. In October 130 at the time of the festival of Osiris, god of fertility and afterlife, the entourage was sailing up the Nile when Antinous drowned mysterious circumstances. Hadrian is reported to have been devastated by the death and at his request Antinous was deified and worshipped both the Greek East and Latin West.
The reign of Hadrian was one of artistic revival inspired by classical Greece and the last era which produced genuinely creative Roman official art. The now divine ephebe was immortalised by the best artists of the day with magnificent statues, reliefs and coins depicting him with the ideal features of Hellenistic male beauty in a variety of syncretic guises, predominately those representing him as a hero (heros) or god (theos), which according to the historian Dio Cassius could be found 'in the entire world' (Romaika, 69.11.4). His coins were only issued by mints the Greek East to commemorate special local events and festivals organised by local Romano-Greek elites, something the Senate in Rome was not ready to decree with its special seal of approval for bronze coins, S C (Senatus Consulto).
The reverse type displaying a bull marked on the flank with a crescent moon, also issued by the mints of Hadrianotherae and Mytilene, is likely to be connected to the 'taurobolium', a bull sacrifice practiced from the mid 2nd century AD in connection with the cult of the great Anatolian mother goddess Kybele, her son Attis, and Mēn the Phrygian lunar god, all connect to oriental concepts of mystery and afterlife.