69, Lot: 99. Estimate $500. Sold for $730. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NERO. 54-68 AD. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.08 gm). Struck 66-67 AD. Laureate head right / Jupiter seated left, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. RIC I 63; WCN 30; Cohen 120. Fine, graffiti on reverse.

This reverse type commemorates the protection of Nero from the revolt of Corbulo. The years 64-65 AD were those in which events defined the subsequent reputation of Nero as a cruel and self-indulgent ruler. In 64 AD, a large section of the city of central Rome burned; Nero's reputed singing of the destruction of Troy during the fire led to the later association of him "fiddling." Out of the charmed remains of the city's near center, Nero constructed the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, so named because of the guilded tiles on its exterior. Covering the area east of the Forum and up the Esquiline, it included a man-made lake and a large guilded statue of himself. Vespasian later constructed an amphitheater and the nearby colossus of Nero would lend its name to the new structure. Nero's "excesses" led to a conspiracy in 65 AD to overthrow him; thus the IVPPITER CVSTOS reverse signalled its successful defeat. The reissuance of this reverse may reflect a possible coup around Cn. Domitius Corbulo, Nero's most successful general whom the emperor compelled to suicide, or the the revolts of Clodius Macer or Vindex. Jupiter's protection was short-lived, however; Nero, bereft of human support, committed suicide on June 9, 68 AD.