Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Aurelian AV Aureus. Tripolis, AD 273. IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust to right, with aegis on far shoulder / VICTORIA AVG, Victory advancing to right, holding wreath and palm. RIC V.1 -, cf. 376-377 (bust to left, Antioch); MER-RIC 3208 (temporary) = BN 1363 = Estiot 1999/1, 177a; Calicó -, cf. 4033 (bust to left, Antioch). 5.19g, 20mm, 6h.
Mint State; highly lustrous, with crisp, beautiful details. Extremely Rare, perhaps the second known example of this variant.
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 69, 16 April 2020, lot 1123.
An unusually full amount of information is known about the context of this coin's production. After Aurelian's victory over Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire and his return to the West to launch a campaign against the Carpi, the emperor received news of another rebellion in Palmyra. A Palmyrene citizen called Septimius Apsaios, who had been a protagonist in the previous revolt and was leader of a pro-independence party among the city's political elite, was attempting to sway the prefect Marcellinus towards assuming the imperial robe for himself. The prefect was able to warn the emperor but while he delayed the rebels, another figure called Antiochus was put forward by the Palmyrenes as an imperial usurper (Zosimus Hist. Nov. I.60).
Aurelian force marched his army to Palmyra and regained control of the city without difficulty in March AD 273. In contrast to his first capture of the city, however, this time city was sacked and a great deal of plunder was taken, the imperial clemency evidently having worn too thin. The city was razed to the ground, with the most valuable monuments seized to decorate Aurelian's Temple of Sol in Rome, the people were massacred and the Temple of Bel pillaged. Palmyra was reduced to a village and although the Legio I Illyricorum was stationed there for good measure, it largely disappeared from historical records of that period. The emperor then had to turn his attention to nearby Egypt, which, owing to its pro-Palmyrene sentiment, had followed the city in rebelling.
It is out of this context that the present coin emerges: setting out for Egypt, there was a need to pay and reward the troops, who had been in constant toil for some time and with considerable success; thus, a new mint was opened along the route to Egypt at Tripolis in Phoenicia, for the production of a large gold donative which was struck from gold taken as spoils in the sack of Palmyra and distributed amongst the men as they marched towards Alexandria. Fittingly, the types on these coins celebrate this recent success, as on as the present with its fine depiction of Victory bearing forth the victors' wreath and palm.
Mint State; highly lustrous, with crisp, beautiful details. Extremely Rare, perhaps the second known example of this variant.
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 69, 16 April 2020, lot 1123.
An unusually full amount of information is known about the context of this coin's production. After Aurelian's victory over Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire and his return to the West to launch a campaign against the Carpi, the emperor received news of another rebellion in Palmyra. A Palmyrene citizen called Septimius Apsaios, who had been a protagonist in the previous revolt and was leader of a pro-independence party among the city's political elite, was attempting to sway the prefect Marcellinus towards assuming the imperial robe for himself. The prefect was able to warn the emperor but while he delayed the rebels, another figure called Antiochus was put forward by the Palmyrenes as an imperial usurper (Zosimus Hist. Nov. I.60).
Aurelian force marched his army to Palmyra and regained control of the city without difficulty in March AD 273. In contrast to his first capture of the city, however, this time city was sacked and a great deal of plunder was taken, the imperial clemency evidently having worn too thin. The city was razed to the ground, with the most valuable monuments seized to decorate Aurelian's Temple of Sol in Rome, the people were massacred and the Temple of Bel pillaged. Palmyra was reduced to a village and although the Legio I Illyricorum was stationed there for good measure, it largely disappeared from historical records of that period. The emperor then had to turn his attention to nearby Egypt, which, owing to its pro-Palmyrene sentiment, had followed the city in rebelling.
It is out of this context that the present coin emerges: setting out for Egypt, there was a need to pay and reward the troops, who had been in constant toil for some time and with considerable success; thus, a new mint was opened along the route to Egypt at Tripolis in Phoenicia, for the production of a large gold donative which was struck from gold taken as spoils in the sack of Palmyra and distributed amongst the men as they marched towards Alexandria. Fittingly, the types on these coins celebrate this recent success, as on as the present with its fine depiction of Victory bearing forth the victors' wreath and palm.