Everything you ever wanted to know about Antonia

Nico Kokkinos' Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady is worth obtaining for your library. While I have the older, hard-cover edition (1992), it is available in a newer, paperback edition (2002), which is described in one review as a "major rewrite," with an additional chapter.



Unlike what one would expect from the title, the book is not simply a biography of the daughter of Marc Antony and Octavia, wife of Nero Claudius Drusus, and mother of Claudius, Germanicus and Livilla. It isn't a book focusing on her coins or portraits, either. Rather, it's an interdisciplinary review of everything we know about Antonia from many different sources: literary and historical, inscriptions, papyri, coins and tokens, sculpture, other arts, and architecture.

Although only one chapter is devoted to her coins, it is a book that ancient coin collectors will want to read because it compiles all the various sources of information in a single volume.



I have only one coin of Antonia, a dupondius issued under her son, Claudius.

Antonia, Augusta AD 37 and 41.
Roman orichalcum dupondius, 12.10 gm, 28.3 mm.
Rome, AD 41-50.
Obv: ANTONIA AVGVSTA, bust of Antonia, draped and bare-headed right, hair in long plait.
Rev: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P M TR P IMP S C, Claudius, veiled and togate, standing left, holding simpulum in right hand.
Refs: RIC 92; BMC 166; Cohen Antonia 6; RCV 1902; CBN 143; Carson 405. ​

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this book, about Antonia, and to see your coins of this interesting figure in Roman history!

 

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Mine was purchased in 1987 from a brick and morter store in Alexandria, VA, graded VG-F. It appealed to me for the way it combined a red patina and yellow orichalcum.

 

I read a digital copy of it a long time ago when I got into ancients & enjoyed it.

I was finding & reading whatever empress books I could get my digital hands on.

My only one that has her.


Claudius (41 - 54 A.D.)
Egypt, Alexandria
Billon Tetradrachm
O: TI KLA[UDI KAIS SEBA GERMANI AUTOKR], laureate head of Claudius right; LB to right.
R: ANTWNIA SEBASTH, draped bust of Antonia right, wearing hair in long plait.
Dated RY 2 (41/2 AD)
23mm
11.62g
Dattari 114; Milne 61-64; Emmett 73.

 

I pulled my beat-up old wreck out of a large batch of uncleaned coins many years ago:

Bronze Dupondius
Rome Mint, A.D. 41-50
Obv: ANTONIA AVGVSTA
Rev: TI CLAVDIVS CAES AVG P M TR P IMP - Claudius, veiled and togate, holding simpulum, facing left, between S and C
RIC (Claudius) 92
26mm, 10.3g.

 

I have a very well-worn but (I think) still decently attractive As of Antonia, with the usual reverse of her son Claudius:

 

Sold! I'll have to find the updated 02 version.
Here's my well used addition:

 

Mine has a nice patina imho:

 

My own Antonia ain't too great, but I love it.

 

Mine, needs a better pic though


Antonia, As - Restitution by Claudius
ANTONIA AVGVSTA, bust of Antonia right
TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG PM TRP IMP, Claudius standing left, holding simpulum. SC in field
11,37 gr
Ref : RCV #1902, Cohen #6

Q

 

My only Antonia is an example of the same type that @Mat posted:

Claudius I, billon [Sear]/AR [RPC] Tetradrachm, Year 2 [41/42 AD], Alexandria, Egypt Mint. Obv. Laureate head right, ΤΙ ΚΛΑVΔΙ ΚΑΙΣ ΣΕΒΑ ΓΕΡΜΑΝΙ ΑVΤΟΚΡ around, LΒ [Year 2] under chin / Rev. Draped bust of Antonia [Claudius’s mother] right, ΑΝΤΩΝΙΑ upwards to left, ΣΕΒΑΣΤΗ downwards to right. ); RPC [Roman Provincial Coinage] Vol. I 5117 (1992); RPC I Online at https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/5117; Emmett 73.2 [Emmett, Keith, Alexandrian Coins (Lodi, WI, 2001)]; Sear RCV I 1868 (ill.); Sear GIC 492 (ill.) [D. Sear, Greek Imperial Coins and their Values (1982)]; BMC 16 Alexandria 65 at p. 9 [Poole, Reginald Stuart, A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Vol. 16, Alexandria (London, 1892)]; K & G 12.3 [Kampmann, Ursula & Ganschow, Thomas, Die Münzen der römischen Münzstätte Alexandria (2008)]; Milne 61-64 at p. 3 [Milne, J.G., Catalogue of Alexandrian Coins (Oxford 1933, reprint with supplement by Colin M. Kraay, 1971)]; Dattari (Savio) 114 [Savio, A. ed., Catalogo completo della collezione Dattari Numi Augg. Alexandrini (Trieste, 2007)]. 24 mm., 11.25 g.

 

Looks like a cool book! I'd be curious to know what (if anything) he has to say about my provincial issue from Thessalonica, issued under Caligula (RPC 1574):

I doubt this one is an official Roman mint product. Nice imitation, though, if that's what it is!

 

Here's mine - a cheapish eBay purchase. I will upgrade one day.