iBelgica
June 2021 Auction 30 Jun 2021
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
ROMAN EMPIRE. Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD). Aureus (172 AD) (Rome mint) (Gold, 7.15 gr, 20 mm) Cohen 308, RIC 264. Very Fine, some traces of mounting and cleaning
Emperors were often depicted being crowned by Victory, but the scene here is unusual in that Marcus Aurelius holds a thunderbolt, the attribute of Jupiter. This was done deliberately to recall the divine aid given the Roman army in its campaigns across the Danube (as depicted on the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, lightning struck the enemy camp and an unexpected rain storm dispersed the enemy troo1). The noble portrait on the obverse shows Marcus Aurelius at 50, with a much longer beard than he had ten years previously, perha1 as an outward sign of his philosophical leanings. The strains of the campaigns and the constant crises, which assailed his reign, took their toll: by the end of the reign eight years later his portraits show us a prematurely aged man worn down by care, a far cry from the confident, radiant young man we saw when he first became Caesar, forty-two years before.
Emperors were often depicted being crowned by Victory, but the scene here is unusual in that Marcus Aurelius holds a thunderbolt, the attribute of Jupiter. This was done deliberately to recall the divine aid given the Roman army in its campaigns across the Danube (as depicted on the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, lightning struck the enemy camp and an unexpected rain storm dispersed the enemy troo1). The noble portrait on the obverse shows Marcus Aurelius at 50, with a much longer beard than he had ten years previously, perha1 as an outward sign of his philosophical leanings. The strains of the campaigns and the constant crises, which assailed his reign, took their toll: by the end of the reign eight years later his portraits show us a prematurely aged man worn down by care, a far cry from the confident, radiant young man we saw when he first became Caesar, forty-two years before.