| Classical Numismatic Group > Triton XXVII | Auction date: 9 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 675 Price realized: 8,500 USD (Approx. 7,785 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Gaius (Caligula). AD 37-41. Æ Sestertius (35mm, 26.26 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 37-38. C • CAESAR • AVG • GERMANICVS • PON M • TR • POT •, laureate head left / AGRIPPINA on left, DRVSILLA above, IVLIA on right, S • C in exergue, Gaius' three sisters standing facing: Agrippina (as Securitas), head right, holding cornucopia in right hand and leaning on column, placing left hand on shoulder of Drusilla (as Concordia), head left, holding patera in right hand and cornucopia in left; on right, Julia (as Fortuna), head left, holding rudder in right hand and cornucopia in left. RIC I 33; BMCRE 36 -7; BN 47-9. Green-brown patina, light porosity. Good VF. An attractive coin in hand. From the Wayne Scheible Collection. On this popular and beautiful reverse, the three sisters of Gaius "Caligula" – Drusilla, Julia Livilla, and Agrippina the Younger – are honored and portrayed as goddesses. All three were deeply involved in deadly Julio-Claudian politics. Caligula's hostile biographers depict him as excessively and unnaturally fond of his sisters, Drusilla in particular, whom he named as his primary heir in AD 37, while he was suffering from a near-fatal illness. Drusilla herself died of a virulent plague in 38 AD at the age of 22, plunging Caligula into violent grief. He gave her a state funeral befitting an Augusta and ordered the Senate to deify her. In his depression, Caligula's affections for his remaining sisters cooled and they took to plotting against him, for which he ultimately banished them to the Pontian Islands. After Caligula's assassination in AD 41, the new emperor, his uncle Claudius, rescinded his nieces' exile. Julia Livilla soon fell afoul of Claudius' wife Messalina, who had her imprisoned and starved to death in AD 42. Messalina herself overreached and was executed in AD 48. The following year, Claudius married his surviving niece Agrippina and she quickly became the most powerful woman the Roman Empire had yet seen. Estimate: 3000 USD |  |
