Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIII 24-25 Mar 2022
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Nero Claudius Drusus (father of Claudius) AR Denarius. Rome, AD 41-45. NERO CLAVDIVS DRVSVS GE[RMANICVS IMP], laureate head to left / DE GERMANIS, two oblong shields crossed, over vexillum, four spears and two trumpets. RIC I 74 (Claudius); BMCRE 107 (Claudius); BN 109-10 (Claudius); RSC 6. 3.91g, 19mm, 5h.
Extremely Fine; a bold and attractive portrait of Drusus.
Ex The New York Sale XX, 7 January 2009, lot 397;
Ex Münzen & Medaillen AG Basel, List 398, March 1978, no. 29.
This remarkable denarius is part of a series of bronze coins issued by Claudius to celebrate his father's military triumphs. The younger brother of the future emperor Tiberius, Drusus was born in 38 BC to Livia Drusilla and Tiberius Claudius Nero. Livia divorced Drusus' father only three months after the birth for the emperor Augustus, who treated his stepson most favourably. Augustus allowed Drusus to progress quickly in his career in 19 BC by granting him the ability to hold all public offices five years before the minimum age and arranged for his advantageous marriage to Antonia Minor, the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor. In his lifetime Nero Claudius Drusus was one of the most celebrated military commanders of the age, leading the first Roman legions across the Rhine and rapidly accruing a string of victories and conquests in Germania; in the course of his Germanic campaigns Drusus sought out multiple Germanic (at least three) chieftains, challenging and beating them in single combat. The sources are ambiguous, but imply that at some point he claimed the spolia opima (the arms and armour taken by a Roman general from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat) from a Germanic king, thus becoming the fourth and final Roman to gain this honour, the most prestigious any Roman general could aspire to.
Extremely Fine; a bold and attractive portrait of Drusus.
Ex The New York Sale XX, 7 January 2009, lot 397;
Ex Münzen & Medaillen AG Basel, List 398, March 1978, no. 29.
This remarkable denarius is part of a series of bronze coins issued by Claudius to celebrate his father's military triumphs. The younger brother of the future emperor Tiberius, Drusus was born in 38 BC to Livia Drusilla and Tiberius Claudius Nero. Livia divorced Drusus' father only three months after the birth for the emperor Augustus, who treated his stepson most favourably. Augustus allowed Drusus to progress quickly in his career in 19 BC by granting him the ability to hold all public offices five years before the minimum age and arranged for his advantageous marriage to Antonia Minor, the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor. In his lifetime Nero Claudius Drusus was one of the most celebrated military commanders of the age, leading the first Roman legions across the Rhine and rapidly accruing a string of victories and conquests in Germania; in the course of his Germanic campaigns Drusus sought out multiple Germanic (at least three) chieftains, challenging and beating them in single combat. The sources are ambiguous, but imply that at some point he claimed the spolia opima (the arms and armour taken by a Roman general from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat) from a Germanic king, thus becoming the fourth and final Roman to gain this honour, the most prestigious any Roman general could aspire to.