52, Lot: 109. Estimate $500. Sold for $545. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANTONINUS PIUS. 138-161 AD. Æ Sestertius (25.11 gm). Struck 140-143 AD. Laureate head right / ROMAE AETERNAE, S C across fields, dekastyle temple within which statue of Roma seated facing, a quadriga (suggested) at the top, statues (veiled!) at the corners and a figural group in the pediment. RIC III 623; BMCRE 1279; Cohen 703. Nice VF, green patina. Scarce, especially with figure of Roma. ($500) 

The temple of Roma depicted here was designed by Hadrian in 121 and completed by Pius in 141. It stood facing the forum, and was built back to back with the temple of Venus, which faced the Flavian Amphitheater. Hadrian hed to remove the colossal statue of Nero in order to make room for the temples, which were built on the site of the vestibule of Nero's golden house. (He placed Nero's statue near the entrance to the Ampitheater, and this provided the nickname, "Colloseum".) Their ruins prove both temples consisted of ten colums, and the coins suggest many decorative details. The temple of Roma is variously rendered on sestertii of Hadrian and Pius, and (with only six colums) on antoniniani of Philip the Arab and Probus, and on folles of Maxentius, as well as on scarcer coins of other emperors.