| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 146 | Auction date: 8 May 2024 |
| Lot number: 2374 Price realized: This lot is for sale in an upcoming auction - Bid on this lot  | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Julia Paula, first wife of Elagabalus. Aureus 219-220, AV 20 mm, 6.17 g. IVLIA PAVLA AVG Draped bust r., hair in waves, almost vertical, fastened in queue at back. Rev. CONC – OR – DIA Concordia seated l., holding patera in r. hand and cornucopiae in l.; in field r., star. C 4. BMC Elagabalus 171 note. RIC Elagabalus 210. Calicó 3044. Of the highest rarity, only the third specimen known of this reverse type and one of approximately half a dozen aurei known for Julia Paula. A fantastic portrait perfectly struck in very high relief on a full flan. An invisible mark on obverse field, otherwise virtually as struck and Fdc Ex NAC sale 46, 2008, 631. In early 219, Julia Maesa, the powerful grandmother of the new emperor Elagabalus attempted to create some Roman legitimacy for him by arranging his marriage to Julia Cornelia Paula. His Syrian origin and ecstatic attachment to the eastern religious rites of the solar deity El-Gabal made Elagabalus seem overly foreign and suspicious to the conservative Senate in Rome and it was hoped that the marriage would help to make him more palatable. Julia Paula was after all, very Roman and very respectable. On her mother's side she could claim descent from the gens Cornelia, a family whose fame extended back to the distant, fabulous days of the Republic. At the same time, her father Julius Paulus was an important jurist of the Severan period who later went on to serve as Praetorian Prefect under Severus Alexander (222-235). In theory, Julia Paula was everything that Elagabalus should have wanted in a wife. She was certainly everything that Julia Maesa wanted in a granddaughter-in-law. The marriage was celebrated in true Roman splendor, with grand banquets, gladiatorial fights and a wild beast hunt in the colosseum that resulted in the slaughter of some 51 tigers along with unspecified numbers of other exotic animals. This attractive aureus was almost certainly struck on the occasion of the wedding, perhaps for distribution as a celebratory donative to the army or as other largesse. The obverse depicts the bride and gives her the title of Augusta, which is known to have been granted to Julia Paula upon her marriage to Elagabalus, while the reverse features Concordia-a wish for a happy relationship between imperial husband and wife. Alas, there was little concord between Paula and Elagabalus once the wedding was over and the marriage started. Her conservative Roman mores were incompatible with her husband's reported taste for cross-dressing and his frequent and inappropriate appreciation of other men, usually of questionable social standing. Apparently bent on doing everything possible to offend Roman custom, Elagabalus also conceived an illegal desire for the Vestal Virgin Julia Aquilia Severa, with whom he intended to enter into a sacred marriage and produce god-like children. One suspects that amid all of this scandalous behavior Julia Paula was only too happy when Elagabalus divorced her on the basis of some physical blemish in 220 and she once again resumed her former status as a private citizen. Estimate: 350000 CHF |  |
