Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Electronic Auction 482 16 Dec 2020
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Commodus. AD 177-192. AR Denarius (18mm, 2.88 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 185. Laureate head right / Commodus, standing left on platform, holding scepter and haranguing three soldiers. RIC III 110d; MIR 18, 675-4/30; RSC 141. Toned. VF.
Ex Derek Aldred Collection.
Soon after beginning the celebration for his decennalia, or tenth year of power, the Emperor Commodus was confronted by a detachment of soldiers from Britannia who had been detailed to Italy to fight brigands. The legionaries denounced the praetorian prefect Sextus Tigidius Perennis, claiming he was planning to unseat Commodus and raise his own son to the purple. The British troops had a personal grudge against Perennis due to his harsh crackdown on a mutiny they had staged the previous year. According to the historian Herodian, the soldiers showed Commodus coins that Perennis had struck with his own portrait; no such coins have ever been found, and it is likely the prefect had been framed by his court rival, the chamberlain Cleander. In any case, Commodus cashiered Perennis and allowed the soldiers to execute him and his immediate family. The emperor rewarded the soldiers and bought their loyalty, for a time anyway, with a substantial cash bounty, probably paid out in this denarius type depicting Commodus addressing the cohorts.
Ex Derek Aldred Collection.
Soon after beginning the celebration for his decennalia, or tenth year of power, the Emperor Commodus was confronted by a detachment of soldiers from Britannia who had been detailed to Italy to fight brigands. The legionaries denounced the praetorian prefect Sextus Tigidius Perennis, claiming he was planning to unseat Commodus and raise his own son to the purple. The British troops had a personal grudge against Perennis due to his harsh crackdown on a mutiny they had staged the previous year. According to the historian Herodian, the soldiers showed Commodus coins that Perennis had struck with his own portrait; no such coins have ever been found, and it is likely the prefect had been framed by his court rival, the chamberlain Cleander. In any case, Commodus cashiered Perennis and allowed the soldiers to execute him and his immediate family. The emperor rewarded the soldiers and bought their loyalty, for a time anyway, with a substantial cash bounty, probably paid out in this denarius type depicting Commodus addressing the cohorts.