Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXV 22-23 Sep 2022
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Commodus AV Aureus. Rome, AD 186-187. M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT, laureate and draped bust to right / HILAR AVG P M TR P XII IMP VIII COS V P P, Hilaritas, draped, standing to left, holding branch and long palm. RIC III 150 var. (also cuirassed); C. -; BMCRE 210 note; Biaggi 992 var. (same, same rev. die); Calicó 2263a (same dies). 7.31g, 20mm, 12h.
Mint State. Extremely Rare with this bust type.
From the Altstetten Collection, kept in the vault of Credit Suisse Geneva (documentation available upon request) since 26 November 1969.
This coin was struck at least a decade into Commodus' rule as co-Augustus and more than five years after the death of his father, the esteemed Marcus Aurelius, had left him as sole ruler of the Roman Empire. The reverse type is one of optimism and cheerfulness, with an image of Hilaritas, the personification of gaiety. While the name 'hilaria' was originally a general term given to any holiday or festival, by the time of Commodus it had come to be associated specifically with the honouring of Cybele at the March equinox. The employment of HILAR before Commodus' imperial titles and offices is indicative of the type being employed in a spirit of public rejoicing.
Indeed, this period of Commodus' reign was marked by positive developments: a victory in Britain in AD 185 (for which he received the title Britannicus) and the celebration of his decennalia marked by the Primi Decennales games and advertised as the dawn of a new golden age. On the obverse a magnificent high-relief portrait of Commodus, with painstakingly deeply-carved and intricate curls, gazes out serenely in the characteristic mode of Antonine Emperors.
The prosperous image of Commodus' rule proclaimed by this coin was, however, only one side of a highly perilous rule. A recent revolt by the praetorian prefect Perennis, who reportedly intended to proclaim his own son as Emperor, threatened the Emperor's position. He reacted with a spate of executions and a distribution of largesse to the army to ensure loyalty.
This event was quickly followed by an attempted assassination by a deserter named Maternus in AD 187. Maternus conceived of killing Commodus during the festival of the Hilaria, an annual festival celebrated at the spring equinox in the honour of Cybele. Herodian reports that Maternus was betrayed by a follower and subsequently beheaded, after which Commodus made sacrifices to Cybele in gratitude and celebrated the festival with particular splendour along with the people who continued to rejoice the emperor's deliverance after the event (Herodian RH 10.1).
It is likely no coincidence that there are no Hilaritas types of Commodus before AD 186-187 save for those struck when he was Caesar under Marcus Aurelius in AD 175-6 a decade earlier. Mattingly and Sydenham suggest in RIC that the introduction of this type, along with that of Salus (the personification of welfare), attests to the validity of Herodian's account and may be in fact a reference to it (p. 359). Sestertii struck during the same year depicting Pietas sacrificing describe Commodus as the 'auctor pietatis' suggesting the emperor is not only 'pious' but has given the gods more than their normal due. In the BMCRE catalogue, Mattingly argues that the Hilaritas type must be understood in close connection with this description of the emperor as the auctor pietatis and the fall of Maternus (Vol. IV, p. clxiii). Another interesting allusion to this event can be found on a medallion depicting Hilaritas and Salus and dating AD 187-188 (Gnecchi II 99, pl. 84, 9). It has been argued that this medallion is a direct reference to Commodus' escape at the Hilaria (RIC and BMCRE) and may have been given as a New Year gift by the emperor, who was recording the most important event of the previous year (Toynbee, Roman Medallions, end note 139).
Commodus was eventually assassinated in AD 192 and thereafter immediately declared a public enemy by the senate; the serene positivity of this coin belies the atmosphere of treachery, paranoia and complex political manoeuvring around the man himself.
Mint State. Extremely Rare with this bust type.
From the Altstetten Collection, kept in the vault of Credit Suisse Geneva (documentation available upon request) since 26 November 1969.
This coin was struck at least a decade into Commodus' rule as co-Augustus and more than five years after the death of his father, the esteemed Marcus Aurelius, had left him as sole ruler of the Roman Empire. The reverse type is one of optimism and cheerfulness, with an image of Hilaritas, the personification of gaiety. While the name 'hilaria' was originally a general term given to any holiday or festival, by the time of Commodus it had come to be associated specifically with the honouring of Cybele at the March equinox. The employment of HILAR before Commodus' imperial titles and offices is indicative of the type being employed in a spirit of public rejoicing.
Indeed, this period of Commodus' reign was marked by positive developments: a victory in Britain in AD 185 (for which he received the title Britannicus) and the celebration of his decennalia marked by the Primi Decennales games and advertised as the dawn of a new golden age. On the obverse a magnificent high-relief portrait of Commodus, with painstakingly deeply-carved and intricate curls, gazes out serenely in the characteristic mode of Antonine Emperors.
The prosperous image of Commodus' rule proclaimed by this coin was, however, only one side of a highly perilous rule. A recent revolt by the praetorian prefect Perennis, who reportedly intended to proclaim his own son as Emperor, threatened the Emperor's position. He reacted with a spate of executions and a distribution of largesse to the army to ensure loyalty.
This event was quickly followed by an attempted assassination by a deserter named Maternus in AD 187. Maternus conceived of killing Commodus during the festival of the Hilaria, an annual festival celebrated at the spring equinox in the honour of Cybele. Herodian reports that Maternus was betrayed by a follower and subsequently beheaded, after which Commodus made sacrifices to Cybele in gratitude and celebrated the festival with particular splendour along with the people who continued to rejoice the emperor's deliverance after the event (Herodian RH 10.1).
It is likely no coincidence that there are no Hilaritas types of Commodus before AD 186-187 save for those struck when he was Caesar under Marcus Aurelius in AD 175-6 a decade earlier. Mattingly and Sydenham suggest in RIC that the introduction of this type, along with that of Salus (the personification of welfare), attests to the validity of Herodian's account and may be in fact a reference to it (p. 359). Sestertii struck during the same year depicting Pietas sacrificing describe Commodus as the 'auctor pietatis' suggesting the emperor is not only 'pious' but has given the gods more than their normal due. In the BMCRE catalogue, Mattingly argues that the Hilaritas type must be understood in close connection with this description of the emperor as the auctor pietatis and the fall of Maternus (Vol. IV, p. clxiii). Another interesting allusion to this event can be found on a medallion depicting Hilaritas and Salus and dating AD 187-188 (Gnecchi II 99, pl. 84, 9). It has been argued that this medallion is a direct reference to Commodus' escape at the Hilaria (RIC and BMCRE) and may have been given as a New Year gift by the emperor, who was recording the most important event of the previous year (Toynbee, Roman Medallions, end note 139).
Commodus was eventually assassinated in AD 192 and thereafter immediately declared a public enemy by the senate; the serene positivity of this coin belies the atmosphere of treachery, paranoia and complex political manoeuvring around the man himself.