1. Artemide Aste
  2. Artemide 58E (5-6 March 2022)
  3. The Roman Empire
Lot 495:
Gaius (Caligula) (37-41) with Agrippina I. AR Denarius, 37-38 AD. Obv. C CAESAR AVG GERM PM TR POT. Laureate head of Gaius right. Rev. AGRIPPINA MAT C CAES AVG GERM. Draped busts of Agrippina right, wearing hair in waves from brow downward and knotted in a long plait at the back, one lock falls down the neck. RIC I (2nd ed.) 14; C. 2 (Fr. 30). AR. 3.51 g. 18.50 mm. RR. Scratch on reverse. Very rare. Two expressive, masterly engraved portraits. Lightly toned. VF. Perhaps more than any other emperor of Rome Caligula honored his family on his coinage, both living and deceased members. Besides his surviving sisters, amongst those so honored were his great-grandfather Augustus, his grandfather Agrippa, his father Germanicus, and his mother and his two brothers, Agrippina I and Nero and Drusus Caesars, the latter three succumbing in the family's contest for power against Sejanus, Tiberius's notorious Praetorian Prefect. Early in his reign, Caligula journeyed to the island of Pandataria, where his mother had died while cruelly imprisoned at the order of Tiberius, and recovered her ashes. Agrippina had been a strong critic of Tiberius' principate, questioning him about the mysterious circumstances of her husband's death and also accusing him of having attempted to poison her. Under Sejanus' manipulation, Tiberius' animosity towards her and her family grew increasingly stronger, which eventually lead to them being convicted of plotting against him. Nero starved to death while imprisoned in Rome, and Drusus committed suicide shortly after the trial. Agrippina, however, was banished to the island of Pandataria where she was imprisoned under very brutal circumstances (she lost an eye while being flogged, and she was regularly withheld nourishment). Eventually she died there of starvation. (Ira & Larry Goldberg 80, 3117 note).
Start price € 500
Current price € 2500
Bids: 16
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