Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Live Auction 6 25 Mar 2023
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Caligula Æ Sestertius. Rome, AD 37-38. C•CAESAR•AVG•GERMANICVS•P•M•TR•POT, Pietas seated to left, holding patera and resting arm on small draped standing figure; PIETAS in exergue / Emperor standing to left, holding patera over garlanded altar, flanked by victimarius holding bull for sacrifice and attendant holding a patera; garlanded hexastyle temple of Divus Augustus in background, pediment decorated with sacrificial scene, and with quadriga and Victories as acroteria, and statues of Romulus and Aeneas along roof line; DIVO-AVG S-C across fields. RIC I 36; C. 11; BMCRE 41. 26.07g, 35mm, 6h.
Good Very Fine; beautifully centred on the flan.
From the collection of a Romanophile;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction IV, 30 September 2012, lot 2721.
The reverse of this magnificent type commemorates the completion of the temple of Divus Augustus, built on the Palatine Hill on the site of the house that Augustus had inhabited before he entered public life. Vowed by the Roman Senate shortly after the death of the emperor in AD 14, it was not finished until AD 37, around the time the present coin was struck, whereupon it was dedicated over the last two days of August that year - the month renamed in honour of Augustus. Caligula, as Pontifex Maximus, led the sacrificial ceremonies. According to Cassius Dio (59.7.4), the commemorative events ordered by Caligula were exceptionally extravagant: a two-day horse race took place along with the slaughter of 400 bears and "an equal number of wild beasts from Libya", and Caligula postponed all lawsuits and suspended all mourning "in order that no one should have an excuse for failing to attend". The last known reference to the temple was on 27 May AD 218; at some point thereafter it was completely destroyed and its stones were presumably quarried for later buildings. The site has never been excavated and its original appearance must be reconstructed only from its depictions on the Roman coinage of which the present type is the most significant.
Good Very Fine; beautifully centred on the flan.
From the collection of a Romanophile;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction IV, 30 September 2012, lot 2721.
The reverse of this magnificent type commemorates the completion of the temple of Divus Augustus, built on the Palatine Hill on the site of the house that Augustus had inhabited before he entered public life. Vowed by the Roman Senate shortly after the death of the emperor in AD 14, it was not finished until AD 37, around the time the present coin was struck, whereupon it was dedicated over the last two days of August that year - the month renamed in honour of Augustus. Caligula, as Pontifex Maximus, led the sacrificial ceremonies. According to Cassius Dio (59.7.4), the commemorative events ordered by Caligula were exceptionally extravagant: a two-day horse race took place along with the slaughter of 400 bears and "an equal number of wild beasts from Libya", and Caligula postponed all lawsuits and suspended all mourning "in order that no one should have an excuse for failing to attend". The last known reference to the temple was on 27 May AD 218; at some point thereafter it was completely destroyed and its stones were presumably quarried for later buildings. The site has never been excavated and its original appearance must be reconstructed only from its depictions on the Roman coinage of which the present type is the most significant.