The Pisonian Conspiracy

227, Lot: 452. Estimate $150. Sold for $725. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nero. AD 54-68. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.04 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 64-65. Laureate head right / IVPPIT[ER] CVSTOS, Jupiter seated left on throne, holding thunderbolt and scepter. RIC I 53; RSC 119. VF.

This reverse type commemorates the protection of Nero from the Pisonian Conspiracy. Events of the years AD 64-65 defined the subsequent reputation of Nero as a cruel and self-indulgent ruler. His "excesses" resulted in a conspiracy to overthrow and replace the emperor with Gaius Calpurnius Piso. Among the conspirators were many high-ranking members of Nero's court, including Seneca the Younger, the poet Lucan, and Petronius, who called himself Nero's "arbiter of elegance." To Nero, the failure of a conspiracy made up of those so close to him could have been achieved only through divine intervention. As the king of the Gods oversaw the security of the Roman state, Nero believed it was Jupiter the Guardian (Custos) who had saved him from harm.