Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1517. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $1050. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AURELIAN. 270-275 AD. Antoninianus (4.58 gm). Serdica mint. Struck 274 AD. IMP. DEO. ET. DOMINO. AVRELIANO. AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust right / Female, representing the world, standing left, offering wreath to Aurelian standing right, holding spear; */KA•G•. RIC V 305; MIR 47, 261/3dd. Good VF. Very rare. ($750)

This issue represents the first official use of DEO ET DOMINO. Though some previous emperors, like Domitian, sought to have this epithet included among their titles, traditional sensibilities discouraged its acceptance; Trajan's OPTIMUS PRINCEPS was the closest to officially-sanctioned flattery. Aurelian's recovery of the empire after the "disastrous" reign of Gallienus made such a title appropriate, since only a godlike man of masterful power could have achieved such a feat. By the next century, however, the idea of divine mastery in the emperor became commonplace.