Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1086. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PISIDIA, Sagalassus. Hadrian. 117-138 AD. Æ 30mm (19.68 gm). ADPIANOC KAICAP OLUMPIOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / CAGALACCEWN, the Dioscuri facing on horseback, crescent above. SNG France 1763 (same dies); BMC Lycia -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -. VF, green patina with a few patches of red, small flan crack. Very rare. ($750)

The emperor Hadrian was granted many honorific titles by the Greeks, including "Savior," "Founder," "New Dionysus," "New Heracles," "Panhellenius," and "Savior of the World," but the epithet "Olympius" is perhaps the most presumptuous. During one of Hadrian’s visits to Athens, early in 129 AD, the inner shrine of the massive Temple of Zeus Olympius (much of which survives today) was ready for the emperor's dedication. The Historia Augusta reports that at this time Hadrian also dedicated an altar to himself, by virtue of which he seems to have elected himself a god, and to have invested himself with the powers of the Olympian Zeus (the Greek equivalent of the Roman Jupiter Optimus Maximus).