Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1398. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DOMITIA, wife of Domitian. Augusta, 82-96 AD. Æ Sestertius (26.85 gm). Rome mint. Draped bust right / DIVI CAESAR MATER, Domitia seated left, holding sceptre, extending hand to child standing facing before her. RIC II 440 (Domitian); BMCRE 501 (Domitian); Cohen 7. Fair, dark brown surfaces, rough. Very rare. ($1000)

From the Michael Weller Collection. Ex Earl Fitzwilliam Collection (Christie, Manson & Woods, 30 May 1949), lot 80.

Domitia Longina, the daughter of Nero's famed general Corbulo and a woman who possessed a rather shady reputation, was the mistress of Domitian before the two were married sometime after 70 AD. The union produced two children, a girl first and a boy the following year, though the dates of their births are not secure, and who dashed any dynastic hopes with their early deaths. In 82 AD, since Domitia was hailed as Augusta, she had apparently given birth to the girl. The boy was born in 83 AD, though he seems to have died shortly thereafter and been subject to almost-immediate apotheosis, as the legend DIVI CAESAR(IS) MATER on our coin (and other types in the series) shows. While the figure of Pietas represents Domitia, the small figure before her, designed to represent the boy, seems clearly not to conform to the new-born depicted elsewhere on his coinage. Moreover, scholars have assigned Domitian's subsequent exile of Domitia to the same year. Again, our coin shows she remained in favor long enough for the boy's deification, though that period was quite brief, given Domitian's mercurial nature.