Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1588. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DIOCLETIAN. 284-305 AD. AV Aureus (5.62 g, 7h). Rome mint. Post-reform, struck 295 AD. DIOCLETI-ANVS P F AVG, laureate head right / IOVI FVLG-E-RAT-OR-I, Jupiter standing right, drapery extending from left arm, hurling thunderbolt, held in right hand, at anguipede giant to right; PR. Cf. RIC VI 20 (Trier mint); Lukanc p. 183, 3 (same obv. die); Calicó 4530a (this coin); Depeyrot 6/8; Cohen -. EF. Very rare. ($7500)

Ex Triton IV (5 December 2000), lot 677.

Lukanc erroneously lists two coins of this type (in Princeton and Munich) as RIC V 146. The RIC listing is for a pre-reform aureus with a laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust, and Jupiter standing left. In contrast, the coins of the present type are clearly post-reform, and part of the Rome mint companion issue to the Trier aurei listed as RIC VI 20. Regarding the dating, Depeyrot lists this type as having been struck in 287 AD, which is clearly too early. His dating of the companion type at Trier (Depeyrot 2B) is 295 AD, which must also be the correct date for the Rome mint issue.

Although Jupiter possessed numerous epithets, most of which were associated with his role as a sky-god, that of fulgurator (the god of lightning) seems to appear no earlier than the second century AD and appears to be a Roman equivalent of the Greek Zeus Keraunios. The reverse type depicts an episode from the Gigantomachy, in which the Olympians brought about order through the destruction of the Giants, symbols of chaos and seems appropriate for Diocletian, who had adopted the cognomen Jovius. What is also noteworthy is the possible allusion to Diocletian's colleague, Maximianus, who had adopted the cognomen Herculius. According to a prophecy, the Giants would be slain only through the help of a "lion-skinned mortal." To bring this prophecy to fulfilment, Zeus enlisted the aid of Heracles. To defeat the present imperial "chaos," the new Jovian emperor required the assistance of his own "Heracles" in the person of Maximianus.