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Nero. AD 54-68. Æ Sestertius (36mm, 27.45 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 65. Laureate bust right, wearing aegis / Temple of Janus with garland hung across closed double doors to left and latticed windows to right. RIC I 270; WCN 140. Green patina with brown highlights, a few light scratches, scrape on reverse. VF.
Ex Berk BBS 110 (8 September 1999), lot 624.
The Temple of Janus was one of Rome’s most ancient centers of worship. It was said that Romulus had built it after he made peace with the Sabines, and that it was king Numa who decreed that its doors should be opened during times of war and shut during times of peace. In all of Roman history until the reign of Nero, the temple doors had been shut perhaps five or six times – once under king Numa, once at the end of the Second Punic War, three times under Augustus, and, according to Ovid, once under Tiberius.
With the close of the Parthian War in AD 63, it was decreed that the doors should again be closed. Nero marked the event with great celebrations and trumpeted his policy of peace by issuing a large and impressive series of coins. The inscription on this issue announces “the doors of Janus have been closed after peace has been procured for the Roman People on the land and on the sea.” The doors of the temple probably remained closed for less than a year, being opened again with the onset of strife in Judaea in 66.
Closing Date and Time: 26 May 2021 at 11:59:40 ET.
All winning bids are subject to an 18% buyer’s fee.
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