Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1479. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HADRIAN. 117-138 AD. Æ Sestertius (25.32 gm). Struck circa 134-138 AD. Laureate and draped bust right / ADVENTI AVG GALLIAE, Hadrian standing right, holding roll and raising hand to Gallia standing left, holding patera over lighted and garlanded altar; victim lying at base. RIC II 884; BMCRE 1643; Cohen 32. Good VF, brown surfaces, spots of roughness in fields. Attractive portrait. ($1500)

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

HADRIAN'S TRAVELS

Between the years 119 and 136 AD, the emperor Hadrian travelled throughout the Roman Empire, visiting various provinces to take stock of his inheritance and calm the disquiet which had arisen in the later years of Trajan's reign. His travels can be divided into two major episodes. The first tour was designed to shore-up Rome's northern borders and began sometime around 119 AD when Hadrian first visited the provinces of Gaul (lots 1479-80) and Germania Inferior and Superior. The emperor then crossed the Channel to Britannia where, during his stay, construction began on a seventy-three-mile long wall across the north of the province, known to this day as Hadrian's Wall. In 122-123 AD, Hadrian spent time in Hispania (lot 1481), then travelled East to Asia Minor. The remainder of this first tour was spent in the Balkans and Greece, touring such areas as DACIA (lot 1482) and ACHAEA (lot 1483), before returning to Rome, via Sicily, in 126 AD.

Hadrian's second tour began in 128 AD, when he set out on a short tour of the provinces of Africa (lot 1484) and Mauretania (lot 1485). Returning for a brief stay in Rome, Hadrian then went again to Asia Minor, and continued into Syria (lot 1486) and Palestine. In 130 AD, Hadrian moved on to Aegypt (lots 1487-9), where he visited Alexandria (lot 1490). It was while Hadrian was on tour in Egypt that his favorite, Antinoüs, mysteriously drowned in the Nile. Hadrian's attempt to "refound" Jerusalem as the city of Aelia Capitolina and build a temple to Jupiter on the the Temple Mount sparked the revolt of Simon bar-Kochba in 132 AD, and thus Hadrian remained in the region until 135 AD, when the revolt had largely been suppressed. In 136 AD Hadrian returned to Italia (lot 1491), ending his long travels. Increasing ill-health necessitated Hadrian's remaining close to the capital, as well as adopting Aelius and, later, Antoninus Pius as heirs to the throne.