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Showcase Auction 61288 18 Sep 2022
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Ancients
Agrippina Senior (died AD 33). AE sestertius (35mm, 26.35 gm, 7h). Choice VF, tooled. Rome, ca. AD 37-41. AGRIPPINA M F MAT C CAESARIS AVGVSTI, draped bust of Agrippina Senior right, seen from front, hair falling in queue down back of neck / S•P•Q•R / MEMORIAE / AGRIPPINAE, decorated funerary carpentum drawn by two mules left, the side ornamented, the cover supported by standing figures at the corners. RIC I (Gaius) 55. BMCRE 86-7 (Caligula). Evidence of tooling, thus ineligible for encapsulation.
From the Historical Scholar Collection
Vipsania Agrippina was born in 14 BC to Julia the Elder, daughter of Caesar Augustus, and to his right-hand-man Marcus Agrippa. Though her Julio-Claudian family was the most powerful in the Empire, it was also shot through with intrigue, tension, and untimely death. Her father died when she was only two. A few years later Augustus exiled her mother for serial adultery, effectively orphaning her and her three brothers, who were taken into the imperial household and raised by the emperor and his wife, the arch-manipulator Livia Drusilla. In the drama-filled last decade of Augustus' reign, all three of her brothers died young, or were murdered, clearing the path for the succession of Livia's son Tiberius. Agrippina was also married during this span, between 1 BC and AD 5, to Germanicus, the charismatic nephew of Tiberius and her own second maternal cousin. Though supremely political, the union was also very happy and the couple eventually had nine children, including the future emperor Gaius 'Caligula' and empress Agrippina the Younger. All ancient historians agree Agrippina was a model of rectitude and matronly virtue; she also went beyond the traditional role of a Roman wife and mother in accompanying Germanicus on risky military campaigns and foreign postings. The Roman people admired her courage; however she also had an imperious nature and longed for the day when her husband would inherit supreme power. The mysterious death of Germanicus while on a diplomatic mission in the East in AD 19 dashed these hopes. Agrippina believed Tiberius and/or Livia had a hand in his demise and made no secret of her suspicions. This put her squarely in the crosshairs of Sejanus, Tiberius' unscrupulous Praetorian prefect, who waged a patient campaign to undermine her in the eyes of Tiberius and the public. In AD 29 she was charged with treason and banished to a remote island; repeatedly abused and starved, she died four years later. Upon the death of Tiberius, her son Gaius 'Caligula' became emperor and rehabilitated his mother's reputation, striking this handsome sestertius to mark the occasion when her ashes were formally returned to Rome and interred in the mausoleum of Augustus.
https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/roman-imperial/ancients-agrippina-senior-died-ad-33-ae-sestertius-35mm-2635-gm-7h-choice-vf-tooled/a/61288-95215.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-61288-09182022
HID02906262019
© 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved
Agrippina Senior (died AD 33). AE sestertius (35mm, 26.35 gm, 7h). Choice VF, tooled. Rome, ca. AD 37-41. AGRIPPINA M F MAT C CAESARIS AVGVSTI, draped bust of Agrippina Senior right, seen from front, hair falling in queue down back of neck / S•P•Q•R / MEMORIAE / AGRIPPINAE, decorated funerary carpentum drawn by two mules left, the side ornamented, the cover supported by standing figures at the corners. RIC I (Gaius) 55. BMCRE 86-7 (Caligula). Evidence of tooling, thus ineligible for encapsulation.
From the Historical Scholar Collection
Vipsania Agrippina was born in 14 BC to Julia the Elder, daughter of Caesar Augustus, and to his right-hand-man Marcus Agrippa. Though her Julio-Claudian family was the most powerful in the Empire, it was also shot through with intrigue, tension, and untimely death. Her father died when she was only two. A few years later Augustus exiled her mother for serial adultery, effectively orphaning her and her three brothers, who were taken into the imperial household and raised by the emperor and his wife, the arch-manipulator Livia Drusilla. In the drama-filled last decade of Augustus' reign, all three of her brothers died young, or were murdered, clearing the path for the succession of Livia's son Tiberius. Agrippina was also married during this span, between 1 BC and AD 5, to Germanicus, the charismatic nephew of Tiberius and her own second maternal cousin. Though supremely political, the union was also very happy and the couple eventually had nine children, including the future emperor Gaius 'Caligula' and empress Agrippina the Younger. All ancient historians agree Agrippina was a model of rectitude and matronly virtue; she also went beyond the traditional role of a Roman wife and mother in accompanying Germanicus on risky military campaigns and foreign postings. The Roman people admired her courage; however she also had an imperious nature and longed for the day when her husband would inherit supreme power. The mysterious death of Germanicus while on a diplomatic mission in the East in AD 19 dashed these hopes. Agrippina believed Tiberius and/or Livia had a hand in his demise and made no secret of her suspicions. This put her squarely in the crosshairs of Sejanus, Tiberius' unscrupulous Praetorian prefect, who waged a patient campaign to undermine her in the eyes of Tiberius and the public. In AD 29 she was charged with treason and banished to a remote island; repeatedly abused and starved, she died four years later. Upon the death of Tiberius, her son Gaius 'Caligula' became emperor and rehabilitated his mother's reputation, striking this handsome sestertius to mark the occasion when her ashes were formally returned to Rome and interred in the mausoleum of Augustus.
https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/roman-imperial/ancients-agrippina-senior-died-ad-33-ae-sestertius-35mm-2635-gm-7h-choice-vf-tooled/a/61288-95215.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-61288-09182022
HID02906262019
© 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved