Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XX 29-30 Oct 2020
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Maximian AV Aureus. Rome, AD 287. MAXIMIANVS P F AVG, laureate head to right / VIRTVS AVGG, Hercules standing to right, kneeling with left leg on the rump of the Ceryneian Hind, which he seizes by its golden antlers; vertical club behind, PR in exergue. RIC -; C. 595; Calicó 4736; Depeyrot 6/10; Biaggi 1802. 4.95g, 20mm, 11h.
Fleur De Coin.
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Leu Numismatik AG, Auction 93, 10 May 2005, lot 120;
Ex Christie's, 15 June 1971, lot 87.
Around 287 Diocletian assumed the title Iovius, and his colleague Maximian assumed the title Herculius; these grandiose new titles not only reflected the working dynamic between Diocletian and Maximian (while the one acted as supreme strategist, the other enforced imperial will by brute force), but more importantly by taking on divine attributes Diocletian intended to make the person of the emperor inviolate as the gods' representative on earth.
On the reverse of this aureus Maximian employs an allegorical reference to his own strength and capability as emperor through the depiction of one of Hercules' Twelve Labours. Hercules is shown here in the critical moment that sees him victorious in his third labour: capturing the Ceryneian hind. This mythical animal took the form of an enormous and swift female deer that snorted fire, larger than a bull with golden antlers like those of a stag, hooves of bronze, and possessed of a dappled hide. To bring it back alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae was the third Labour of Hercules. Its name is speculated to be derived from the river Cerynites "which rises in Arcadia and flows through Achaia into the sea" (Sir James George Frazer, Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library 2. 5. 3-4). In one version of the story, this fantastical creature was originally one of five such animals happened upon by Artemis at the base of the Parrhasian hill "far away from the banks of the black-pebbled Anaurus" (Callimachus and Lycophron, Hymn III (to Artemis). 98 ff.). Impressed by the beasts, she harnessed four of them to her golden chariot with golden bridles, but let one go, foreknowing that its capture should one day serve as a task for Hercules.
Thus sacred to Artemis, Hercules was ordered by Eurystheus to bring back this golden-horned doe alive. So he chased the deer for a whole year long from Attica to Hyperborea and back again to mount Artemisius, where thus tired out it lay down near the river Ladon where Hercules was able to capture it. There are differing accounts as to how Hercules was able to bring his quarry to heel, but the engraver of this coin, like most artists depicting this Labour chose a traditional version in which he subdues it by the strength of his hands alone. Only after explaining to Artemis and Apollo, "who would have wrested the hind from him" (The Library 2. 5. 3-4) that he had only hurt the sacred hind out of necessity, was he allowed to take it alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae, thus completing his third Labour.
Maximinian's alignment with the unrelenting stamina and will of Hercules became ever more important to convey as he set out on campaigns to secure but also expand the reaches of the empire. The most pressing threat came from the Moselle-Vosges region where the Burgundian and Alemanni tribes resided. Using scorched-earth tactics, Maximian led his troops in destruction of this area's assets, quickly subduing them before moving on to defeat the Heruli and Chaibones in a single battle. By the end of 287 Maximian's army had rid the Rhenish lands of Germanic tribesmen and the area was taken under Roman rule. This divinely inspired progress did not however continue, and by 289 Maximian had failed in his invasion of Britain. The two Augusti could no longer maintain effective control over the empire by themselves, resulting in the elevation of two new Caesars by Diocletian: Constantius to assist in the west and Galerius in the East.
Fleur De Coin.
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Leu Numismatik AG, Auction 93, 10 May 2005, lot 120;
Ex Christie's, 15 June 1971, lot 87.
Around 287 Diocletian assumed the title Iovius, and his colleague Maximian assumed the title Herculius; these grandiose new titles not only reflected the working dynamic between Diocletian and Maximian (while the one acted as supreme strategist, the other enforced imperial will by brute force), but more importantly by taking on divine attributes Diocletian intended to make the person of the emperor inviolate as the gods' representative on earth.
On the reverse of this aureus Maximian employs an allegorical reference to his own strength and capability as emperor through the depiction of one of Hercules' Twelve Labours. Hercules is shown here in the critical moment that sees him victorious in his third labour: capturing the Ceryneian hind. This mythical animal took the form of an enormous and swift female deer that snorted fire, larger than a bull with golden antlers like those of a stag, hooves of bronze, and possessed of a dappled hide. To bring it back alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae was the third Labour of Hercules. Its name is speculated to be derived from the river Cerynites "which rises in Arcadia and flows through Achaia into the sea" (Sir James George Frazer, Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library 2. 5. 3-4). In one version of the story, this fantastical creature was originally one of five such animals happened upon by Artemis at the base of the Parrhasian hill "far away from the banks of the black-pebbled Anaurus" (Callimachus and Lycophron, Hymn III (to Artemis). 98 ff.). Impressed by the beasts, she harnessed four of them to her golden chariot with golden bridles, but let one go, foreknowing that its capture should one day serve as a task for Hercules.
Thus sacred to Artemis, Hercules was ordered by Eurystheus to bring back this golden-horned doe alive. So he chased the deer for a whole year long from Attica to Hyperborea and back again to mount Artemisius, where thus tired out it lay down near the river Ladon where Hercules was able to capture it. There are differing accounts as to how Hercules was able to bring his quarry to heel, but the engraver of this coin, like most artists depicting this Labour chose a traditional version in which he subdues it by the strength of his hands alone. Only after explaining to Artemis and Apollo, "who would have wrested the hind from him" (The Library 2. 5. 3-4) that he had only hurt the sacred hind out of necessity, was he allowed to take it alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae, thus completing his third Labour.
Maximinian's alignment with the unrelenting stamina and will of Hercules became ever more important to convey as he set out on campaigns to secure but also expand the reaches of the empire. The most pressing threat came from the Moselle-Vosges region where the Burgundian and Alemanni tribes resided. Using scorched-earth tactics, Maximian led his troops in destruction of this area's assets, quickly subduing them before moving on to defeat the Heruli and Chaibones in a single battle. By the end of 287 Maximian's army had rid the Rhenish lands of Germanic tribesmen and the area was taken under Roman rule. This divinely inspired progress did not however continue, and by 289 Maximian had failed in his invasion of Britain. The two Augusti could no longer maintain effective control over the empire by themselves, resulting in the elevation of two new Caesars by Diocletian: Constantius to assist in the west and Galerius in the East.