Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 132 30-31 May 2022
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Maximianus Herculius augustus, first reign 286 – 305
Aureus 287, AV 5.05 g. MAXIMIA – NVS P F AVG Laureate head r. Rev. VIRT – VS AVGG Hercules standing r., kneeling on the Cerynean hind, which he seizes by its antlers; in l. field, club. In exergue, P R. C 595. RIC –. Depeyrot 6/10. Biaggi 1802 (this coin). Calicó 4736.
Very rare. An interesting and fascinating issue struck on a very broad
flan and complete. Good extremely fine
Ex Hirsch 26 April 1954, 1321; NAC 40, 2007, 839 and NAC 88, 2015, 490 sales. From the Biaggi collection.
Soon after Diocletian assumed supreme power in mid-285, he appointed as co-ruler a comrade-in-arms named Maximian. He was initially invested with the rank of Caesar, but by April 1, 286, Diocletian had raised Maximian to the rank of Augustus. The two ruled jointly for seven years until they expanded their diarchy into a tetrarchy by each appointing a Caesar as their deputy. Each also chose a god to follow: Jove (Jupiter) for Diocletian and Hercules for Maximian. In Diocletian's new system the emperors were represented as having received their mandate to rule from the gods, and so they adopted the names Jovius and Herculius and, beginning in 287, celebrated divine birthdays – their geminis natalis – on July 21. All of this was important in Diocletian's new world order, for divine parentage made them incalculably more legitimate than any usurper who might claim the purple. On this aureus Maximian celebrates his membership in the Herculian house. His portrait appears on the obverse, and on the reverse his divine companion Hercules is engaged in his fourth labour, capturing the Cerynean hind. Hercules' twelve labors and many of his other adventures were common themes in art and literature and were as familiar to the Romans as the episodes of the Trojan War or the adventures of Odysseus were to the Greeks.
View a video of this lot
Aureus 287, AV 5.05 g. MAXIMIA – NVS P F AVG Laureate head r. Rev. VIRT – VS AVGG Hercules standing r., kneeling on the Cerynean hind, which he seizes by its antlers; in l. field, club. In exergue, P R. C 595. RIC –. Depeyrot 6/10. Biaggi 1802 (this coin). Calicó 4736.
Very rare. An interesting and fascinating issue struck on a very broad
flan and complete. Good extremely fine
Ex Hirsch 26 April 1954, 1321; NAC 40, 2007, 839 and NAC 88, 2015, 490 sales. From the Biaggi collection.
Soon after Diocletian assumed supreme power in mid-285, he appointed as co-ruler a comrade-in-arms named Maximian. He was initially invested with the rank of Caesar, but by April 1, 286, Diocletian had raised Maximian to the rank of Augustus. The two ruled jointly for seven years until they expanded their diarchy into a tetrarchy by each appointing a Caesar as their deputy. Each also chose a god to follow: Jove (Jupiter) for Diocletian and Hercules for Maximian. In Diocletian's new system the emperors were represented as having received their mandate to rule from the gods, and so they adopted the names Jovius and Herculius and, beginning in 287, celebrated divine birthdays – their geminis natalis – on July 21. All of this was important in Diocletian's new world order, for divine parentage made them incalculably more legitimate than any usurper who might claim the purple. On this aureus Maximian celebrates his membership in the Herculian house. His portrait appears on the obverse, and on the reverse his divine companion Hercules is engaged in his fourth labour, capturing the Cerynean hind. Hercules' twelve labors and many of his other adventures were common themes in art and literature and were as familiar to the Romans as the episodes of the Trojan War or the adventures of Odysseus were to the Greeks.
View a video of this lot