Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Triton XXV 11-12 Jan 2022
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Commodus. AV Aureus (21mm, 7.33 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 185. COMM • ANT • AVG • P • BRIT, bareheaded, draped and cuiassed bust right, viewed from front / P M TR P X IMP VII COS IIII P P, VIRT AVG in exergue, Commodus astride horse rearing to right, cloak flying behind, preparing to cast javelin at lion crouching left below. RIC III 114; MIR 18, 666-2/13; Calicó 2362 (R3; same obv. die as illustration); BMCRE 168; Biaggi 1024 (same obv. die). Fully lustrous, a few faint hairlines in fields. Superb EF. Very rare and superior to the two examples in CoinArchives.
In the Roman Empire, the privilege of hunting lions was often reserved to the emperor himself, to be granted to others only by special dispensation. Cassius Dio recounts that Commodus jealously guarded this prerogative. When he heard a provincial nobleman named Julius Alexander of Emesa in Syria (a kinsman of the future empress Julia Domna) had become famous for killing a lion with a javelin from horseback, Commodus ordered that he be arrested and executed. Julius Alexander could have escaped, but could not bring himself to part with his male lover, who wearied of the pursuit. "And so, when he was being overtaken, he killed both the boy and himself" (Dio, 73.14).
In the Roman Empire, the privilege of hunting lions was often reserved to the emperor himself, to be granted to others only by special dispensation. Cassius Dio recounts that Commodus jealously guarded this prerogative. When he heard a provincial nobleman named Julius Alexander of Emesa in Syria (a kinsman of the future empress Julia Domna) had become famous for killing a lion with a javelin from horseback, Commodus ordered that he be arrested and executed. Julius Alexander could have escaped, but could not bring himself to part with his male lover, who wearied of the pursuit. "And so, when he was being overtaken, he killed both the boy and himself" (Dio, 73.14).