Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIII 24-25 Mar 2022
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Hadrian AV Aureus. Rome, AD 124-125. HADRIANVS AVGVST, laureate bust to right, slight drapery on far shoulder / COS, she-wolf standing to left, suckling Romulus and Remus seated below; III in exergue. RIC II.3 708; C. 424; BMCRE 448 note; Biaggi 598 var. (obv. legend); Calicó 1236 corr. (bust type). 7.38g, 20mm, 6h.
Fleur De Coin; a beautiful and well-struck example with lustrous metal. Very Rare.
From the Pinewood Collection.
The only shared component in the many foundation legends of Rome recorded since the third century BC is that Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of a Vestal Virgin called Rhea Silvia. For the rest of the myth there are many variances, but one of the most commonly attested narratives is that recorded by Livy in his History of Rome written under Augustus. According to Livy, Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor, the rightful king of Alba Longa (the city founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, at the foot of the Alban hills) who was usurped by his brother Amulius and his descendants killed or, in his daughter's case, deprived of hope of having children through being forced to be a Vestal Virgin. Rhea Silvia became pregnant through an encounter with the god Mars and the twins were set afloat on the flooded Tiber in the hope they would drown as ordered by Amulius. Their crying attracted the attention of a she-wolf who nursed them and was so gentle that the shepherd Faustulus, who found them saw the wolf licking the human babies. The twins were then taken in by Faustulus and his wife and raised in the area around the Palatine hill until, as adults, they overthrew the usurper Amulius and founded Rome in the area where they had grown up. This type can be traced back to the earliest coinage of the Republic; a silver Hercules didrachm (Crawford 20/1) dated to circa 264-255 BC depicts on the reverse the twins being suckled by the she-wolf.
The type, either alone or as an adjunct motif, was sporadically reused into imperial times and featured prominently on aurei and denarii of Domitian. It was perhaps particularly useful for Hadrian, who spent more than half his reign outside Italy, to draw upon a traditional Roman image in his coinage while away on his travels across the empire. Later examples of the type include coins produced under Constantine I, who, from AD 330, issued a vast number of small coins celebrating Rome by pairing a helmeted head of Roma with the twins and she-wolf motif following his foundation of Constantinople as a new capital in the East. The coin type was probably inspired by ancient statues of the wolf and twins, which unfortunately do not survive but their existence is verified by several ancient accounts; Livy's History of Rome (10.23) states that in 295 BC a statue was placed near the Ficus Ruminalis (the fig tree at the foot of the Palatine hill by the Tiber which the legend says is the spot where the twins floated ashore) and Cicero reports that a statue of Romulus being suckled by the she-wolf was struck by lightning in 65 BC (Against Catiline, 3.19).
While this instantly recognisable foundational motif is popular on Hadrian's coinage, the combination of this bust type and abbreviated obverse legend makes this particular type, of which this is a stunning Fleur De Coin example, particularly rare.
Fleur De Coin; a beautiful and well-struck example with lustrous metal. Very Rare.
From the Pinewood Collection.
The only shared component in the many foundation legends of Rome recorded since the third century BC is that Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of a Vestal Virgin called Rhea Silvia. For the rest of the myth there are many variances, but one of the most commonly attested narratives is that recorded by Livy in his History of Rome written under Augustus. According to Livy, Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor, the rightful king of Alba Longa (the city founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, at the foot of the Alban hills) who was usurped by his brother Amulius and his descendants killed or, in his daughter's case, deprived of hope of having children through being forced to be a Vestal Virgin. Rhea Silvia became pregnant through an encounter with the god Mars and the twins were set afloat on the flooded Tiber in the hope they would drown as ordered by Amulius. Their crying attracted the attention of a she-wolf who nursed them and was so gentle that the shepherd Faustulus, who found them saw the wolf licking the human babies. The twins were then taken in by Faustulus and his wife and raised in the area around the Palatine hill until, as adults, they overthrew the usurper Amulius and founded Rome in the area where they had grown up. This type can be traced back to the earliest coinage of the Republic; a silver Hercules didrachm (Crawford 20/1) dated to circa 264-255 BC depicts on the reverse the twins being suckled by the she-wolf.
The type, either alone or as an adjunct motif, was sporadically reused into imperial times and featured prominently on aurei and denarii of Domitian. It was perhaps particularly useful for Hadrian, who spent more than half his reign outside Italy, to draw upon a traditional Roman image in his coinage while away on his travels across the empire. Later examples of the type include coins produced under Constantine I, who, from AD 330, issued a vast number of small coins celebrating Rome by pairing a helmeted head of Roma with the twins and she-wolf motif following his foundation of Constantinople as a new capital in the East. The coin type was probably inspired by ancient statues of the wolf and twins, which unfortunately do not survive but their existence is verified by several ancient accounts; Livy's History of Rome (10.23) states that in 295 BC a statue was placed near the Ficus Ruminalis (the fig tree at the foot of the Palatine hill by the Tiber which the legend says is the spot where the twins floated ashore) and Cicero reports that a statue of Romulus being suckled by the she-wolf was struck by lightning in 65 BC (Against Catiline, 3.19).
While this instantly recognisable foundational motif is popular on Hadrian's coinage, the combination of this bust type and abbreviated obverse legend makes this particular type, of which this is a stunning Fleur De Coin example, particularly rare.