Nomos AG
Auction 25 20 Nov 2022
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Pertinax, 193. Aureus (Gold, 20 mm, 7.28 g, 6 h), Rome, 1 January-28 March 193. IMP CAES P HELV PERTIN AVG Laureate and bearded head of Pertinax to right. Rev. LAETITIA • TEMPOR COS II Laetitia standing facing, turning her head to left, holding wreath in her extended right hand and long scepter in her left. BMC 7. Calicó 2383. Cohen 19. Lempereur 83 (D37/R57 this coin). RIC 4a. With a strong, bold and particularly well engraved portrait of the emperor. About extremely fine.
From a North-American collection, ex Gorny & Mosch 240, 10 October 2016, 527, and The New York Sale XXXIV, 6 January 2015, 613.
Pertinax was the son of a freedman from northern Italy and was born in 126. He first worked as a teacher but, with the help of patrons, managed to be appointed as an officer in a cohort when he was in his 30s. After this his rise was swift: he had his first consulship in 175, was governor of Britain c. 185-187, pro-consul of Africa in 118-189 and was consul for a second time with Commodus as his colleague in 192. Alarmed by Commodus' increasingly insane behaviour, Pertinax joined in the conspiracy against him and was then made emperor. His attempts at economy and reform enraged the Praetorians who ultimately rose up and murdered him, ushering in several years of civil war. Pertinax's greatest problem was that he had basically been made emperor by the Praetorian Guard, and had no body of soldiers who were loyal to him personally. Thus, when the Guard revolted he had no force of his own to resist them. He was only avenged when the more than 20 years younger Septimius Severus became emperor, executed the murderers and dismissed the rest of the Praetorian Guard.
From a North-American collection, ex Gorny & Mosch 240, 10 October 2016, 527, and The New York Sale XXXIV, 6 January 2015, 613.
Pertinax was the son of a freedman from northern Italy and was born in 126. He first worked as a teacher but, with the help of patrons, managed to be appointed as an officer in a cohort when he was in his 30s. After this his rise was swift: he had his first consulship in 175, was governor of Britain c. 185-187, pro-consul of Africa in 118-189 and was consul for a second time with Commodus as his colleague in 192. Alarmed by Commodus' increasingly insane behaviour, Pertinax joined in the conspiracy against him and was then made emperor. His attempts at economy and reform enraged the Praetorians who ultimately rose up and murdered him, ushering in several years of civil war. Pertinax's greatest problem was that he had basically been made emperor by the Praetorian Guard, and had no body of soldiers who were loyal to him personally. Thus, when the Guard revolted he had no force of his own to resist them. He was only avenged when the more than 20 years younger Septimius Severus became emperor, executed the murderers and dismissed the rest of the Praetorian Guard.