Lot 1943

Description

Commodus, (A.D. 177-192), gold aureus, Rome mint, issued A.D. 191-192, (7.06 grams), obv. laureate bust of Commodus to right, around L AEL AVREL COMM AVG P FEL, rev. around PROVIDENTIAE AVG, Hercules standing left, foot on prow, resting club on tree trunk to right, clasps hands with Africa on left facing to right, wearing elephant skin on head, holding sistrum and ear of corn, lion at feet, (S.-, RIC 259, C.642). Nearly extremely fine and very rare.

Ex. NFA Auction Sale X, September 17-18, 1981 (lot 363). $$ It is difficult to interpret this reverse type as merely referring to Commodus institution of a new fleet to bring grain from Africa to Rome, since the ship type with legend PROVID AVG on Commodus' coins of 186-7 suggests that this fleet had already been established six years earlier. More probably, Commodus was planning a trip to North Africa and Egypt in 192 which he then postponed, and it is these plans that are reflected in the above coin's reverse type, and in the type of the same year that shows Commodus, crowned by Victory, clasping hands over an altar with the Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis. Consequently it can be dated to 192 an incident reported in the Historia Augusta's biography of Commodus 'the emperor pretended that he was going to make a trip to Africa so that he could request a travel grant from the Senate, and he got the grant, but then spent it on banquets and gambling'.