| Heritage World Coin Auctions > NYINC Signature Sale 3114 | Auction date: 16 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 33205 Price realized: 1,100 USD (Approx. 1,010 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Ancients BITHYNIA. Claudiopolis. Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian (died AD 130). AE medallion (38mm, 37.87 gm, 12h). NGC Choice Fine 5/5 - 1/5. Η ΠΑΤΡΙϹ-ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΝ-ΘΕΟΝ, bare headed and draped bust of Antinous right, seen from back / ΒΕΙΘΥΝΙΕΩΝ-ΑΔΡΙΑΝΩΝ, Antinous as Hermes Nomios standing left, wearing short chiton, chlamys, and winged boots, right hand resting on ox standing left, pedum cradled in left; star above. RPC III 1110. Extremely rare, with only one other example on RPC. Clear details despite the wear, with a handsome portrait style of the young man. Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 527 (16 November 2022), lot 203. Antinoüs was a handsome Bithynian youth whom Hadrian probably noticed on his visit to Bithynium-Claudiopolis in AD 123/4. According to Hadrian's recent biographer Anthony Birley, Antinoüs likely found a "discreet place" in Hadrian's entourage and accompanied the peripatetic emperor on his various journeys. Their relationship came to a mysterious end during Hadrian's visit to Egypt in AD 130. During a barge trip up the Nile, Antinoüs drowned, probably on 24 October. 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 Antinoopolis 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 cult deities. His sculpted image also became ubiquitous as the very personification of male beauty, with over a hundred marbles of the Bithynian youth known to exist today. Antinoüs is extensively honored on the Roman provincial coinage of the East, particularly in Bithynia and Egypt, but is (not surprisingly) completely absent from Imperial Roman coinage. Even in second-century AD Rome, where Eastern luxuries and Greek influence abounded, certain senators and aristocrats still clung to opaque ideals of traditional, unadulterated Roman values and would have perceived the emperor's relationship with Antinoüs as excessively Greek. https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/roman-provincial/ancients-bithynia-claudiopolis-antinous-favorite-of-hadrian-died-ad-130-ae-medallion-38mm-3787-gm-12h-ngc/a/3114-33205.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-3114-01162024 HID02906262019 © 2023 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved |  |
