Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 131 30 May 2022
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Maximianus Herculius first reign, 286 – 305
Aureus 286, AV 5.26 g. IMP C M AVR VAL MAXIMIANVS P F AVG Head r., wearing lion's-skin headdress. Rev. IOVI CO – NSER – VAT AVGG Jupiter standing l., holding thunderbolt in his r. hand and long sceptre in his l. C –. Jameson 325 (this coin). Depeyrot 2D/5 (this coin illustrated). RIC 494 var. (omits P F). Calicó 4692 (these dies).
Very rare and among the finest specimens known. A portrait of enchanting beauty
perfectly struck and centred on a full flan. Virtually as struck and almost Fdc
Ex Hess-Leu 17, 1961, ESR, 393; Leu 93, 2005, Perfectionist, 118 and Heritage 3017, 2019, 32241 (NGC MS 4/5 5/5) sales. From the Jameson, von Schulten and Morris collections.
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus made his military career under Aurelian and Probus: he was proclaimed Augustus by Diocletian, perhaps on the 1st of April 286, and was entrusted with the government and the defence of the Danubian provinces and the Balkan peninsula.
The unsuccessful attempt to reconquer Britain against the usurpation of Carausius obliged Diocletian to form the tetrarchic system, assigning to Maximianus, Constantius Chlorus as Caesar. Thus Maximianus went to Africa to fight the Mauretanian rebel tribes, which he defied between 297-298.
The portrait of Maximianus in the aureus seems to have undergone a process of idealisation: the head of Augustus is wearing a lion-skin, the face is framed by a ring of beard and the chin appears strong.
The motive of the pellis leonina (that of the Nemean lion, strangled by Heracles in one of his twelve labours), proclaims the figure of Hercules Comes, standing with his typical attributes (the bow and the club) of the reverse. Maximianus credited the special divine protection under which his power continued to the hero of the Roman-Italic tradition, from whom he had taken the name of "Herculean".
Graded MS Strike 4/5 Surface 5/5 Fine Style, NGC certification number 4632489-004.
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Aureus 286, AV 5.26 g. IMP C M AVR VAL MAXIMIANVS P F AVG Head r., wearing lion's-skin headdress. Rev. IOVI CO – NSER – VAT AVGG Jupiter standing l., holding thunderbolt in his r. hand and long sceptre in his l. C –. Jameson 325 (this coin). Depeyrot 2D/5 (this coin illustrated). RIC 494 var. (omits P F). Calicó 4692 (these dies).
Very rare and among the finest specimens known. A portrait of enchanting beauty
perfectly struck and centred on a full flan. Virtually as struck and almost Fdc
Ex Hess-Leu 17, 1961, ESR, 393; Leu 93, 2005, Perfectionist, 118 and Heritage 3017, 2019, 32241 (NGC MS 4/5 5/5) sales. From the Jameson, von Schulten and Morris collections.
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus made his military career under Aurelian and Probus: he was proclaimed Augustus by Diocletian, perhaps on the 1st of April 286, and was entrusted with the government and the defence of the Danubian provinces and the Balkan peninsula.
The unsuccessful attempt to reconquer Britain against the usurpation of Carausius obliged Diocletian to form the tetrarchic system, assigning to Maximianus, Constantius Chlorus as Caesar. Thus Maximianus went to Africa to fight the Mauretanian rebel tribes, which he defied between 297-298.
The portrait of Maximianus in the aureus seems to have undergone a process of idealisation: the head of Augustus is wearing a lion-skin, the face is framed by a ring of beard and the chin appears strong.
The motive of the pellis leonina (that of the Nemean lion, strangled by Heracles in one of his twelve labours), proclaims the figure of Hercules Comes, standing with his typical attributes (the bow and the club) of the reverse. Maximianus credited the special divine protection under which his power continued to the hero of the Roman-Italic tradition, from whom he had taken the name of "Herculean".
Graded MS Strike 4/5 Surface 5/5 Fine Style, NGC certification number 4632489-004.
View a video of this lot