Nero as Caesar and Sacerdos

170, Lot: 206. Estimate $750. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nero. As Caesar, AD 50-54. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.18 g). Rome mint. Struck AD 51-54. Bare-headed and draped bust left / Simpulum, tripod, lituus, and patera. RIC I 77 (Claudius); BMCRE 87 (Claudius); RSC 312. VF, porous.

In March of AD 51 the thirteen year old Nero, adopted son of Claudius, was formally declared an adult, thus taking one more step towards Agrippina’s goal of her son becoming the successor to the emperor. Nero was given the title of consul designate, granted honors by the praetorian guards and equites, and also enrolled as priest in the four religious colleges of Rome, the pontifices (simpulum), augurs (lituus), quindecimviri sacris faciendus (tripod) and the septemviri epulones (patera), whose symbols adorn the reverse of this denarius and as.