Colossus of Nero

231, Lot: 167. Estimate $400. Sold for $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nero. AD 54-68. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.26 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 64-65. Laureate head right / Nero standing facing, radiate and togate, holding Victory and laurel branch. RIC I 47; RSC 45. VF, a few marks.

The reverse depicts Nero’s Colossus, a roughly 120 foot tall bronze statue of the emperor as Sol that was created by Zenodorus for the vestibule of the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, the massive palace constructed by Nero after the fire of AD 64. Hadrian moved Zenodorus’ work, by this point altered so that it no longer represented Nero, closer to the Favian Amphitheatre. The sculpture’s memory was retained in the popular name of that amphitheatre - the Colosseum.