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Hadrian. AD 117-138. AV Aureus (20mm, 7.14 g, 12h). “Travel series” issue (“Provinces cycle”) – The province alone. Rome mint. Struck AD 132. HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Nilus, naked to waist, reclining right, holding reed in right hand and cornucopia in left, resting right arm on urn; to right, hippopotamus standing right; below, in water, crocodile left . RIC II.3 1439; Strack 310βo; Beckmann, Gold, dies e2/NN1; Calicó 1162; BMCRE 866 (same dies); Adda –; Biaggi –; Jameson –; Mazzini 1498 var. (bust type; same rev. die). Toned, faint hairlines. VF. Fine style. Rare.
From the PLZ Collection. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 106 (Part II, 10 May 2018), lot 1503; Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection (Part I, Sotheby’s Zurich, 10 November 1972), lot 301; Judge E. E. Farman (1831-1911) Collection.
Hadrian's extensive grand tours culminated in a lengthy visit to Egypt in AD 130-131, accompanied by a vast entourage that included his wife Sabina and the handsome Bithynian Antinoüs, his young protégé and lover. Antinoüs was a local youth whom Hadrian probably noticed on his visit to Bithynia in AD 123/4. He found a discreet place in Hadrian’s entourage and accompanied the peripatetic emperor on his various journeys for much of the next decade. Their relationship came to a mysterious end during Hadrian’s visit to Egypt in 130. During a barge trip up the Nile, Antinoüs drowned, probably on October 24. In his memoirs, Hadrian insisted the youth’s death was an accident, but other historians implied either that Hadrian had killed him in some sacrificial rite, or that Antinoüs had committed ritual suicide to preserve Hadrian’s health. Whatever the true story, Hadrian’s grief was such that he deified the youth and founded the city of Antinoöpolis near the spot of his drowning. The cult of Antinoüs spread rapidly throughout the Greek east, making him the last of the truly popular Pagan gods. His sculpted image also became ubiquitous as the very personification of male beauty. Hadrian finally returned from his travels in circa 132 and retired to his lavishly decorated villa at Tivoli, where Egypt and the Nile were given special prominence.
This remarkable aureus boasts an astonishing reverse depiction of the river god Nilus surrounded by the fauna of Egypt, rendered in the highest artistry of the age. Unusually, the reverse bears no legend, leaving the engraver's work to speak for itself. Both the emperor’s portrait and the reclining figure of Nilus face to the right, as opposed to the following example, where both face to the left.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 132 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 18-19 May 2026.
CNG Feature Auction 132 – Session One – Lot 1-318 will be held Monday morning, 18 May 2026 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
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