326, Lot: 276. Estimate $150. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BITHYNIA, Tium. Antinoüs. Died AD 130. Æ (33mm, 23.43 g, 6h). Bare head left / Antinous, half-draped, seated right on low garlanded platform, holding sistrum in upraised hand. Blum p. 46, 2; RG 35. Fair, brown patina. Rare.

One of the most remarkable cults of the ancient world was that which grew up around the youth Antinoüs, a boy from Claudiopolis in Bithynia who attracted the attention of the emperor Hadrian. Hadrian had little love for his wife Sabina, and chose instead to shower favors on the handsome youth, whom he apparently chanced upon during a visit to Bithynia. While touring with the emperor in Egypt in October AD 130, Antinoüs fell into the Nile and drowned, an event surrounded by dark suspicions of suicide or ritual murder. The distraught Hadrian had his companion immediately deified, and the worship of Antinoüs became an important facet of the imperial cult.