Ex Gasvoda Collection
CILICIA, Anazarbus. Domitian, with Domitia. AD 81-96. Æ Assarion (22mm, 8.27 g, 12h). Dated CY 112 (AD 93/4). AYTO KAI ΘE YI ΔOMITIANOΣ ΣE ΣEP, laureate head of Domitian right, behind, star / KAIΣAPEΩN ΔOMETIA CEBACTH, draped bust of Domitia left; IB-P (date) across field. Ziegler 76 (Vs1/Rs3); RPC II 1749; SNG BN 2019-20; SNG Levante 1374. Earthen-green patina, scratches, flan preparation marks. Good VF. A pair of exceptional portraits.
Ex Classical Numismatic Group 108 (16 May 2018), lot 458; Michael Gasvoda Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica 94, 6 October 2016), lot 189.
Domitia Longina was the daughter of the famous Roman general Corbulo, and the mistress of Domitian before the two were married in AD 71. A boy was born to the couple, but died very young and was deified upon Domitian’s accession as emperor in AD 81. Domitia was acclaimed as Augusta shortly thereafter, but the marriage was a tempestuous one and she was exiled from the palace for a time in AD 83. By the following year she had returned, and the couple seems to have arrived at a modus vivendi for the rest of Domitian’s reign. The historian Cassius Dio claims Domitia had a role in her husband’s assassination in September of AD 96. However, she continued to refer to herself as “Domitia, wife of Domitian” for the rest of her long life. She died peacefully sometime between AD 126 and 130.
