Aeneas with Ascanius and Anchises
TROAS, Ilion. Autonomous issues. Time of the Flavians, circa AD 79-96. Æ Semis (19mm, 6.86 g, 12h). Armored bust of Athena left, holding spear over right shoulder / Aeneas advancing right, head left, leading Ascanius with his right hand and carrying Anchises with his left arm. Bellinger T129; RPC II 895; SNG Copenhagen 368. Good VF, natural orichalchum surfaces, minor roughness.
The city of Ilium was founded by the emperor Augustus on the site of the legendary city of Troy. According to Vergil (Aeneid, Book 2), Aeneas, the son of the goddess Venus and the Trojan Anchises, fled with some remnants of the city’s inhabitants 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.
