Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Galba AV Aureus. Uncertain mint in Gaul, AD 68. SER GALBA IMPERATOR, laureate head to right / VICTORIA P R, Victory standing to left on globe, holding wreath and palm. RIC I 110; C -; BMCRE 226; Biaggi -; Calicó 513. 7.41g, 18mm, 6h.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare; no other examples offered at auction in the past 20 years.
From the Kingsdown Collection.
Dio Cassius relates that Galba put great emphasis on how the Senate had bestowed power on him, and that he had not claimed it for himself: for the Praetorian prefect Nymphidius Sabinus had openly abandoned his support for Nero, and with the emperor having fled the city and after some vacillation procured his own death, the Senate posthumously declared Nero a public enemy and proclaimed Galba, already en route from his province of Hispania Tarraconensis, as the new emperor.
Galba sought to distance himself from the general laxity and debasement that seemed to be the norm of elite behaviour during the rule of Nero. He prioritised the restoration of Rome's finances and portrayed himself as ushering in a new golden age through a return to stern old Roman values. His meanness with money, policy of high taxation and reputation as a stern disciplinarian however, whilst in a sense living up to these values, nevertheless ensured that his reign would be short.
Suetonius relates that "His double reputation for cruelty and avarice had gone before him... he had melted down a golden crown of fifteen pounds weight, which the people of Tarraco had taken from their ancient temple of Jupiter and presented to him, with orders that the three ounces which were found lacking be exacted from them. This reputation was confirmed and even augmented immediately on his arrival in the city. For having compelled some marines whom Nero had made regular soldiers to return to their former position as rowers, upon their refusing and obstinately demanding an eagle and standards, he not only dispersed them by a cavalry charge, but even decimated them. He also disbanded a cohort of Germans, whom the previous Caesars had made their body-guard and had found absolutely faithful in many emergencies, and sent them back to their native country without any rewards" (Life of Galba, 12.1-2).
Unpopular with both army and people, his harsh treatment of the Praetorians and refusal to gift them the customary donative upon his accession, on account of his aversion to buying loyalty, created a rift that his rival Otho was able to exploit. A man not to be held back by such scruples, he bribed the Praetorians to murder Galba, which they did in January 69. Galba's head was brought by a soldier to Otho's camp where camp boys mocked it on a lance, and it was then bought for 100 gold pieces by a freedman who threw it at the Sessorium where his master Patrobius Neronianus had been killed by Galba. Some one hundred and twenty men petitioned Otho in the hope of reward claiming that they had killed Galba; Vitellius would later have them all executed.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare; no other examples offered at auction in the past 20 years.
From the Kingsdown Collection.
Dio Cassius relates that Galba put great emphasis on how the Senate had bestowed power on him, and that he had not claimed it for himself: for the Praetorian prefect Nymphidius Sabinus had openly abandoned his support for Nero, and with the emperor having fled the city and after some vacillation procured his own death, the Senate posthumously declared Nero a public enemy and proclaimed Galba, already en route from his province of Hispania Tarraconensis, as the new emperor.
Galba sought to distance himself from the general laxity and debasement that seemed to be the norm of elite behaviour during the rule of Nero. He prioritised the restoration of Rome's finances and portrayed himself as ushering in a new golden age through a return to stern old Roman values. His meanness with money, policy of high taxation and reputation as a stern disciplinarian however, whilst in a sense living up to these values, nevertheless ensured that his reign would be short.
Suetonius relates that "His double reputation for cruelty and avarice had gone before him... he had melted down a golden crown of fifteen pounds weight, which the people of Tarraco had taken from their ancient temple of Jupiter and presented to him, with orders that the three ounces which were found lacking be exacted from them. This reputation was confirmed and even augmented immediately on his arrival in the city. For having compelled some marines whom Nero had made regular soldiers to return to their former position as rowers, upon their refusing and obstinately demanding an eagle and standards, he not only dispersed them by a cavalry charge, but even decimated them. He also disbanded a cohort of Germans, whom the previous Caesars had made their body-guard and had found absolutely faithful in many emergencies, and sent them back to their native country without any rewards" (Life of Galba, 12.1-2).
Unpopular with both army and people, his harsh treatment of the Praetorians and refusal to gift them the customary donative upon his accession, on account of his aversion to buying loyalty, created a rift that his rival Otho was able to exploit. A man not to be held back by such scruples, he bribed the Praetorians to murder Galba, which they did in January 69. Galba's head was brought by a soldier to Otho's camp where camp boys mocked it on a lance, and it was then bought for 100 gold pieces by a freedman who threw it at the Sessorium where his master Patrobius Neronianus had been killed by Galba. Some one hundred and twenty men petitioned Otho in the hope of reward claiming that they had killed Galba; Vitellius would later have them all executed.