Aeneas Fleeing Troy

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 478. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TROAS, Antandrus. Severus Alexander. AD 222-235. Æ Medallion (38mm, 35.17 g, 6h). AVTOKPA KAI M AVP CЄOVHPOC AΛЄΞANΔPOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / EPI TRA AVP[...], ANTANΔPIΩN in exergue, Aeneas advancing right, head left, leading Ascanius by the hand, and holding Anchises on his shoulder; stern of galley to right. Cf. C. Fontana, “Note su alcune monete inedite o poco conosciute della serie urbica greca coniate durante l’Impero Romano,” RIN 1967, 18 (for similar issue of Caracalla). Good VF, dark brown patina, some roughness, slight doubling on reverse. Unpublished and unique.

According to Vergil (Aeneid, Book 2), Aeneas, the son of the goddess Venus and the Trojan Anchises, fled with some remnants of the inhabitants of Troy as it fell to the Greeks, taking with him his son, Ascanius, his elderly father, Anchises, and the Palladium, or ancient sacred statue of Athena. The Trojans eventually made their way west to resettle in Italy. There they intermarried with the local inhabitants and founded the town of Lavinium, and thereby became the nucleus of the future Roman people. One of the descendants of Aeneas’ son Ascanius (known now as Iulus) was Rhea Silvia. Impregnated by the god Mars, she gave birth to the twins, Romulus and Remus. Exposed by their great-uncle, Amulius, the twins were suckled by a she-wolf, but they were eventually rescued. Romulus later founded the city of Rome, and consequently the image of the she-wolf and the twins became the symbol of that city. The mythological depictions on this coin reinforce the importance of Ilium, not only as the seedbed of the future Roman people, but also as the mother city of the future caput mundi.