Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Hadrian AV Aureus. Rome, AD 121-123. IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG, laureate head to right / P M TR P COS III, Neptune standing facing, head to left with cloak over shoulders, holding acrostolium and trident. RIC II.3 586; BMCRE 125; Strack 100; Calicó 1314. 7.36g, 19mm, 7h.
Mint State; light brush marks in obv. field.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
The presence of Neptune on Hadrian's coinage is unusual; as a god not often featured on the Roman coinage, in large part no doubt because of a deep-rooted cultural aversion to seafaring, his depiction on two very rare types struck in very close temporal proximity is suggestive of a specific event.
An argument could be made for an allusion to the commencement of Hadrian's tours of the Roman provinces, which began with Britannia in AD 122. Nathan T. Elkins (The Circulation of Nerva's Neptune Coins in Britannia, 2019) and D. Shotter (A Neptune As of the Roman Emperor Nerva, 2013) note that a surfeit of Neptune type coins of Nerva are found in Britain, it is proposed, due to "Neptune's potential resonance with people here who depended on seafaring and commerce across the English Channel", with Elkins going on to draw on the work on M. Peter (1996) and F. Kremmers (2006, 2014) to point out that the Roman Imperial mint produced and distributed specific typologically differentiated coinages to various populations within the empire "according to the relevance of the iconography to the target population". An implicit reference to Britannia is thus plausible, though somewhat tenuous.
A further possible explanation for the employment of this reverse type may lie in the restoration of the Basilica of Neptune originally constructed by M. Vipsanius Agrippa in 25 BC in celebration of the great naval victories over Sextus Pompey at Mylae and Naulochus as well as that over Marc Antony at Actium, but which was severely damaged by fire in the reign of Titus along with the neighbouring Pantheon of Agrippa in AD 80. Both appear to have remained in a state of disrepair until being finally restored under the reign of Hadrian.
The depiction of Neptune, bearded and nude with a long cloak thrown over his shoulders, holding a trident and an acrostolium, the decorative end of a ship's prow, follows well-established Hellenistic and early Roman sculptural models, though the two quite different configurations of Neptune employed on aurei at this point in time (cf. Calicó 1316) largely preclude the possibility that it illustrates a specific statue.
Mint State; light brush marks in obv. field.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
The presence of Neptune on Hadrian's coinage is unusual; as a god not often featured on the Roman coinage, in large part no doubt because of a deep-rooted cultural aversion to seafaring, his depiction on two very rare types struck in very close temporal proximity is suggestive of a specific event.
An argument could be made for an allusion to the commencement of Hadrian's tours of the Roman provinces, which began with Britannia in AD 122. Nathan T. Elkins (The Circulation of Nerva's Neptune Coins in Britannia, 2019) and D. Shotter (A Neptune As of the Roman Emperor Nerva, 2013) note that a surfeit of Neptune type coins of Nerva are found in Britain, it is proposed, due to "Neptune's potential resonance with people here who depended on seafaring and commerce across the English Channel", with Elkins going on to draw on the work on M. Peter (1996) and F. Kremmers (2006, 2014) to point out that the Roman Imperial mint produced and distributed specific typologically differentiated coinages to various populations within the empire "according to the relevance of the iconography to the target population". An implicit reference to Britannia is thus plausible, though somewhat tenuous.
A further possible explanation for the employment of this reverse type may lie in the restoration of the Basilica of Neptune originally constructed by M. Vipsanius Agrippa in 25 BC in celebration of the great naval victories over Sextus Pompey at Mylae and Naulochus as well as that over Marc Antony at Actium, but which was severely damaged by fire in the reign of Titus along with the neighbouring Pantheon of Agrippa in AD 80. Both appear to have remained in a state of disrepair until being finally restored under the reign of Hadrian.
The depiction of Neptune, bearded and nude with a long cloak thrown over his shoulders, holding a trident and an acrostolium, the decorative end of a ship's prow, follows well-established Hellenistic and early Roman sculptural models, though the two quite different configurations of Neptune employed on aurei at this point in time (cf. Calicó 1316) largely preclude the possibility that it illustrates a specific statue.