Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIX 26-27 Mar 2020
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Hadrian AV Aureus. Rome, AD 134-138. HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, bare-headed and draped bust left / AFRICA, Africa reclining to left, wearing elephant-skin headdress and resting right hand on lion standing to left, with left elbow reposing on basket; corn ears behind. RIC II.3 1490; C. 151; BMCRE 810 (same dies); Calicó 1194 (same dies). 7.26g, 20mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine; light reddish tone. Very Rare.
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 190, 11 October 2010, lot 491;
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, The Classical Numismatic Review 22, October 1997, no. 39.
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 42, 29 May 1997, lot 908;
Ex Collection of a Deceased Nobleman, Sotheby's Zurich, 28 November 1986, lot 56.
The province of Africa first welcomed a Roman emperor to its shores when Hadrian, the 'restless emperor' of A. Birley's historical assessment (The Restless Emperor, 1997) voyaged there during his extensive travels between AD 121 and AD 136. Suetonius, himself from Hippo Regius in modern-day Algeria, named Africa and Sardinia as the two provinces which Augustus had failed to reach (Life of Augustus, 47.1) and successive emperors followed suit in neglecting to visit the region until Hadrian's first arrival, probably in AD 123 (though Richard H. Chowen, 'The Problem of Hadrian's Visits to North Africa', 1970 argues that Hadrian's presence in Africa can only be confidently tied to AD 128). 'Hardly any emperor ever travelled with such speed over so much territory' as did Hadrian, claimed the author of the Historia Augusta (13.4), and the present type, with its personified depiction of this lesser-visited province, fits well with this affinity for foreign excursions.
Although details of the emperor's travels are limited, Hadrian's voyages find representation on coinage which commemorates the provinces, like this rare aureus: the empire was reduced in size under Hadrian, yet magnificent reverse types from his 'travel series' displayed personifications of diverse regions, together constituting a vast empire which had reached its greatest extent at the start of Hadrian's reign. R. Abdy argues that coin types depicting the provinces reflected developments in 'the Roman psyche towards their empire', with a movement away from representations of empire which exclusively focused on military victory, as with the Aphrodisias Sebasteion of the Julio-Claudian era, and towards depictions of the provinces as peaceful and prosperous regions (RIC II.3, p.42). Though there are few surviving details of Hadrian's time in Africa specifically, his auspicious arrival was said to have dramatically coincided with rainfall after five years of drought. Hadrian was credited with performing 'many acts of kindness to the provinces' upon arrival in Carthage, the seat of the proconsul of the province, and at Lambaesis in AD 128 he demonstrated his military expertise in a detailed speech to the assembled troops (Historia Augusta, 13.4).
This fascinating reverse is full of symbols of Africa: the beautiful, half-nude figure wears the scalp of an elephant, caresses the thick mane of a lion and reclines on a basket of fruits and corn. The basket is emblematic of the fertility of Africa, a great producer of grain and products such as olive oil, and indeed other coin types depicted Africa with the cornucopiae. Surviving inscriptions of Hadrian's lex de rudibus agris, which stipulated that estate land could be occupied if left uncultivated for ten years, indicated an imperial preoccupation with continuous agricultural productivity in such fertile lands (Rosario Rovira-Guardiola, 'Reshaping the Empire' in Thorsten Opper, Hadrian, 2016, p.121). In fact, the corn supply to Rome, whose population apparently required 30 million modii annually by the time of Septimius Severus (C. R. Whittaker, 'Africa' in CAH Volume 11, 2008, p.526), relied to a critical extent on the output of Africa. Infrastructural developments in Africa were likely directed towards this end: extensions to the road network, such as the construction of the via Hadrumetina, which ran from Ammaedara to the port of Hadrumetum, could be used to convey grain levied for the annona towards Rome. The economic significance of Africa was increasingly coupled with political prominence for certain inhabitants of the region across AD 70-192: C. R. Whittaker cites the increasing numbers of senators of certain African origin, rising from five under the Flavians to fourteen under Trajan and Hadrian (Whittaker, 2008, p.517). By the close of the second century, senators from Africa Proconsularis even accounted for the largest representation from any western province outside Italy, and individuals from Africa increasingly held political influence at Rome.
The lion and elephant scalp of this reverse, as well as the scorpion held by Africa on other provincial types, display the strange and wondrous creatures native to a region which supplied such wild beasts to Rome. Beyond its link to Africa, the lion was associated with Hadrian himself: papyri fragments written by the Egyptian poet Pancrates describe the killing of a savage lion by the emperor and Antinous, his ill-fated lover who later drowned in the Nile. Hadrian first wounded the creature, 'for he wished to test the aim of the handsome Antinous', before killing the lion once it 'grew ever fiercer and tore at the ground with his paws in his rage (translated in Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, 2008, pp.173-4). Throughout his reign, Hadrian displayed his virtus more through such hunting achievements than through military prowess (Abdy, RIC II.3, 2019, p.36), and this magnificent coin type subtly evokes the sporting courage of the Emperor at the same time as commemorating one of the far-flung imperial regions visited by the travelling emperor.
Extremely Fine; light reddish tone. Very Rare.
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 190, 11 October 2010, lot 491;
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, The Classical Numismatic Review 22, October 1997, no. 39.
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 42, 29 May 1997, lot 908;
Ex Collection of a Deceased Nobleman, Sotheby's Zurich, 28 November 1986, lot 56.
The province of Africa first welcomed a Roman emperor to its shores when Hadrian, the 'restless emperor' of A. Birley's historical assessment (The Restless Emperor, 1997) voyaged there during his extensive travels between AD 121 and AD 136. Suetonius, himself from Hippo Regius in modern-day Algeria, named Africa and Sardinia as the two provinces which Augustus had failed to reach (Life of Augustus, 47.1) and successive emperors followed suit in neglecting to visit the region until Hadrian's first arrival, probably in AD 123 (though Richard H. Chowen, 'The Problem of Hadrian's Visits to North Africa', 1970 argues that Hadrian's presence in Africa can only be confidently tied to AD 128). 'Hardly any emperor ever travelled with such speed over so much territory' as did Hadrian, claimed the author of the Historia Augusta (13.4), and the present type, with its personified depiction of this lesser-visited province, fits well with this affinity for foreign excursions.
Although details of the emperor's travels are limited, Hadrian's voyages find representation on coinage which commemorates the provinces, like this rare aureus: the empire was reduced in size under Hadrian, yet magnificent reverse types from his 'travel series' displayed personifications of diverse regions, together constituting a vast empire which had reached its greatest extent at the start of Hadrian's reign. R. Abdy argues that coin types depicting the provinces reflected developments in 'the Roman psyche towards their empire', with a movement away from representations of empire which exclusively focused on military victory, as with the Aphrodisias Sebasteion of the Julio-Claudian era, and towards depictions of the provinces as peaceful and prosperous regions (RIC II.3, p.42). Though there are few surviving details of Hadrian's time in Africa specifically, his auspicious arrival was said to have dramatically coincided with rainfall after five years of drought. Hadrian was credited with performing 'many acts of kindness to the provinces' upon arrival in Carthage, the seat of the proconsul of the province, and at Lambaesis in AD 128 he demonstrated his military expertise in a detailed speech to the assembled troops (Historia Augusta, 13.4).
This fascinating reverse is full of symbols of Africa: the beautiful, half-nude figure wears the scalp of an elephant, caresses the thick mane of a lion and reclines on a basket of fruits and corn. The basket is emblematic of the fertility of Africa, a great producer of grain and products such as olive oil, and indeed other coin types depicted Africa with the cornucopiae. Surviving inscriptions of Hadrian's lex de rudibus agris, which stipulated that estate land could be occupied if left uncultivated for ten years, indicated an imperial preoccupation with continuous agricultural productivity in such fertile lands (Rosario Rovira-Guardiola, 'Reshaping the Empire' in Thorsten Opper, Hadrian, 2016, p.121). In fact, the corn supply to Rome, whose population apparently required 30 million modii annually by the time of Septimius Severus (C. R. Whittaker, 'Africa' in CAH Volume 11, 2008, p.526), relied to a critical extent on the output of Africa. Infrastructural developments in Africa were likely directed towards this end: extensions to the road network, such as the construction of the via Hadrumetina, which ran from Ammaedara to the port of Hadrumetum, could be used to convey grain levied for the annona towards Rome. The economic significance of Africa was increasingly coupled with political prominence for certain inhabitants of the region across AD 70-192: C. R. Whittaker cites the increasing numbers of senators of certain African origin, rising from five under the Flavians to fourteen under Trajan and Hadrian (Whittaker, 2008, p.517). By the close of the second century, senators from Africa Proconsularis even accounted for the largest representation from any western province outside Italy, and individuals from Africa increasingly held political influence at Rome.
The lion and elephant scalp of this reverse, as well as the scorpion held by Africa on other provincial types, display the strange and wondrous creatures native to a region which supplied such wild beasts to Rome. Beyond its link to Africa, the lion was associated with Hadrian himself: papyri fragments written by the Egyptian poet Pancrates describe the killing of a savage lion by the emperor and Antinous, his ill-fated lover who later drowned in the Nile. Hadrian first wounded the creature, 'for he wished to test the aim of the handsome Antinous', before killing the lion once it 'grew ever fiercer and tore at the ground with his paws in his rage (translated in Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, 2008, pp.173-4). Throughout his reign, Hadrian displayed his virtus more through such hunting achievements than through military prowess (Abdy, RIC II.3, 2019, p.36), and this magnificent coin type subtly evokes the sporting courage of the Emperor at the same time as commemorating one of the far-flung imperial regions visited by the travelling emperor.