Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIII 24-25 Mar 2022
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Tiberius AV Aureus. Lugdunum, AD 14-37. TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS, laureate head to right / PONTIF MAXIM, Livia, as Pax, seated to right on throne with plain legs, holding branch and sceptre; double exergual line below. RIC I 25; BMCRE 30; BN 14-5; Biaggi 169; Jameson 31; Mazzini 15; Calicó 305d. 7.79g, 20mm, 10h.
Good Extremely Fine; struck on a broad flan from dies of fine style.
Acquired from Auktionshaus H. D. Rauch GmbH.
'Some say that, out of aversion to any fresh anxiety, he retained what he had once approved as a permanent arrangement' (Tac. Ann i. 80), Tiberius was not inclined to make any administrative changes when he assumed imperial power in AD 14. Instead, he continued and maintained all establishments set up by Augustus. One such establishment was the imperial mint, which according to Strabo, Augustus had centralised for gold and silver at Lugdunum: 'Lugdunum itself, situated on a hill, at the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone, belongs to the Romans. It is the most populous city after Narbonne. It carries on a great commerce, and the Roman prefects here coin both gold and silver money' (Strab. 4.3.2).
Under Tiberius the Lugdunum mint produced a series of types honouring both Divus Augustus and Tiberius's military successes before launching into the production of the ubiquitous 'pontif maxim' series- to which this coin belongs. As a type it offers very little information and modern scholars are not completely agreed upon its interpretation: the female figure on the reverse has been variously labelled as Livia, Livia in the guise of Pax, Livia as a priestess etc. But what is certain is that the type denoted sanctity, for the legend Pontif maxim celebrates Tiberius as head of Roman religion.
Good Extremely Fine; struck on a broad flan from dies of fine style.
Acquired from Auktionshaus H. D. Rauch GmbH.
'Some say that, out of aversion to any fresh anxiety, he retained what he had once approved as a permanent arrangement' (Tac. Ann i. 80), Tiberius was not inclined to make any administrative changes when he assumed imperial power in AD 14. Instead, he continued and maintained all establishments set up by Augustus. One such establishment was the imperial mint, which according to Strabo, Augustus had centralised for gold and silver at Lugdunum: 'Lugdunum itself, situated on a hill, at the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone, belongs to the Romans. It is the most populous city after Narbonne. It carries on a great commerce, and the Roman prefects here coin both gold and silver money' (Strab. 4.3.2).
Under Tiberius the Lugdunum mint produced a series of types honouring both Divus Augustus and Tiberius's military successes before launching into the production of the ubiquitous 'pontif maxim' series- to which this coin belongs. As a type it offers very little information and modern scholars are not completely agreed upon its interpretation: the female figure on the reverse has been variously labelled as Livia, Livia in the guise of Pax, Livia as a priestess etc. But what is certain is that the type denoted sanctity, for the legend Pontif maxim celebrates Tiberius as head of Roman religion.