Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1246. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NERO. 54-68 AD. Æ Sestertius (24.14 gm). Struck 64 AD. Laureate head right, wearing aegis / Port of Ostia with seven ships. RIC I 178; Cohen 37. Good VF, dark green-brown patina, flan crack, lightly smoothed. ($7500) 

While Julius Caesar recognized the value of expanding Rome's port facilitites at Ostia, it was Claudius who began actual building in 42 AD. As part of the construction, one of Caligula's pleasure galleys was scuttled and filled with cement; above it was constucted a lighthouse surmounted by a statue of Neptune. Although the actual date of completion is not certain, it must have occurred shortly before this sestertius was minted. A further expansion of the facilities was required under Trajan and Hadrian. By the fourth century, however, its importance began to diminish as a result of silting. Soon the region became a breeding ground for malaria and was abandoned.