Lot 1829

Description

Nero, (54-68 A.D.), AE As, (10.90 g), Lugdunum (Lyon) Mint, struck circa 65 A.D., obv. bare head right, globe at point of bust, around NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER P M TRP IMP P, rev. The Ara Pacis, ornamented altar enclosure, with ARAPACIS in exergue, S C across, (S.1971, RIC 458, C.27, BMC 360). Minor surface roughness, otherwise good very fine and very rare in this condition.

The Ara Pacis Augustae (Latin, "Altar of Augustan Peace"; commonly shortened to Ara Pacis) is an altar in Rome dedicated to Pax, the Roman goddess of Peace. The monument was commissioned by the Roman Senate on July 4, 13 BC to honour the return of Augustus to Rome after three years in Hispania and Gaul and consecrated on January 30, 9 BC. Originally located on the northern outskirts of Rome, a Roman mile from the boundary of the pomerium on the west side of the Via Flaminia, the Ara Pacis stood in the northeastern corner of the Campus Martius, the former flood plain of the Tiber River and gradually became buried under 4 metres (13 ft) of silt deposits. It was reassembled in its current location, now the Museum of the Ara Pacis, in 1938, turned 90? counterclockwise from its original orientation so that the original western side now faces south. (courtesy of Wikipedia)