Antinoüs, Favorite of Hadrian

258, Lot: 260. Estimate $200. Sold for $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MYSIA, Hadrianothera. Antinoüs. Died AD 130. Æ (24mm, 9.81 g, 6h). Bare head right / Bull standing right. Blum 2, pl. xiii, 12; SNG France 1093; SNG von Aulock 1151. Fine, brown patina.

One of the most remarkable cults of the ancient world was that which grew up around the youth Antinoüs, a boy from Claudiopolis in Bithynia who attracted the attention of the emperor Hadrian. Hadrian apparently had little love for his wife Sabina, and chose instead to shower favors on the handsome youth, whom he apparently chanced upon during a visit to Bithynia. During the emperor’s tour of Egypt in October AD 130, Antinoüs fell into the Nile and drowned, an event surrounded by dark suspicions whispering of suicide or ritual murder. The distraught Hadrian had his favorite immediately deified, and the worship of Antinoüs became an important facet of the imperial cult.