The Empress Sabina, wife of Hadrian, died sometime in the winter of AD 137-38. The Rome mint issued eight posthumous consecration issues, which fall into two main groups: a CONSECRATIO reverse with a divinization theme, and a PIETATI AVG reverse depicting the funereal ustrinum. They were minted in gold, silver, and bronze denominations. I have only one such coin, a denarius with the ustrinum reverse. Sabina, AD 117-137. Roman AR denarius, 3.07 g, 18.4 mm, 5 h. Rome, AD 137-38. Obv: DIVA AVG SABINA, Corn-wreathed, veiled and draped bust of Sabina, right, with hair in bun at nape of neck. Rev: PIETATI AVG, ustrinum with doors in front and antefixae on corners above. Refs: RIC II.3 (second edition) 2607; RIC 422a; BMCRE 961; Cohen/RSC 56; Strack 387; Hill UCR 764; RCV 3896; CRE 30. DATING As the coins are undated, the date of issue is not known with certainty. Of course, her death in winter AD 137-38 serves as a terminus post quem for the issue, but it is conceivable that the coins were issued under Antoninus Pius -- for Sabina was his adoptive mother --- as late as AD 139. Such was the opinion of Mattingly, writing first in RIC[1] and subsequently in BMCRE.[2] However, subsequent scholars, particularly Richard Abdy,[3,4] have assigned a date of AD 137-38, i.e. within no more than a few months of her death. Abdy notes the existence of a sculptural monument to her deification dating dating sometime from late February 138 until summer 138, for the monument includes Antoninus Pius as Caesar, supporting the notion of early consecration of the empress. THE OBVERSE The title DIVA and the presence of the veil indicate this is a posthumous issue and make the late empress' status clear: she has been deified. The bust is known in two varieties[5]: one in which she appears unveiled and with her hair in a plated coil on the crown of her head (e.g. BMCRE 963), which Abdy describes as her "Aphrodite" style,[6] and a veiled bust with a simple bun at the nape of the neck wearing a wreath of corn ears (e.g. BMCRE 961), such as on my coin, above. This coiffure was used briefly on her coins in the Eleusinian year AD 129, after which she was most frequently depicted with her hair in a pigtail-like queue. As to why her posthumous coins do not depict her in the hairstyle she wore at the time of her death, Abdy postulates "perhaps her final lifetime hairstyle was avoided as too closely associated with the living individual,"[7] or that "those of her contemporaries in charge of making the decision were less enthusiastic about that style than the empress herself had been."[8] Abdy and Mittag note the chosen hairstyle with the bun at the nape of the neck "may have had appropriate tones of the afterlife (Demeter in the underworld)."[9] The corn-wreath strengthens the empress' associate with Ceres-Demeter. Adembri notes "a crown of grain-ears or a tall lunate diadem assimilate her to divinity."[10] Abdy opines the "use of corn-wreath does impart a sort of Ceres-Demeter look; appropriate enough for a deceased empress and doubly so for the wife of an enthusiast of the Eleusinian afterlife cult."[11] Compare the portrait on the coin to this statue of the deified Sabina. Bust of Vibia Sabina from the area of Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (near piazza Venezia) - 136-138 AD - National Roman Museum at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. THE REVERSE Contrary to Sear's assertion that the reverse of this coin depicts the Ara Pietatis Augustae,[12] and which I have debunked in an earlier thread, the coin's reverse most likely depicts Sabina's ustrinum, or altar-shrine built over the location of the empress' funeral pyre.[13] Sabina's place of cremation was probably the Campus Martius, perhaps in its central area near the Arco de Portogallo.[14] Sabina's apotheosis relief in the Capitoline Museum, found near the Arco de Portogallo, is thought to have been part of Sabina's (otherwise no-longer-extant) ustrinum.[15] We don't know for sure what happened to Sabina's remains between the time of her funeral and their final internment in Hadrian's mausoleum, the Hadrianeum, after its completion in late AD 139. I suspect they may have been kept in the ustrinum during this time. Relief from the Arc of Portugal (Arco di Portogallo) representing the apotheosis of Sabina (wife of Hadrian), 2nd century AD, Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums. This mausoleum was subsequently renamed the Sepulcrum Antoninorum, which was used as the burial place of the Antonine emperors until Caracalla. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle and is now known as the Castel Sant'Angelo. As usual, post comments or anything you feel is relevant! ~~~ Notes: 1. Mattingly, Harold, and E. A. Sydenham. The Roman Imperial Coinage Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. Spink & Son Ltd, 1923, p. 318. 2. Mattingly, Harold. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum. Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1965, p. 362. 3. Abdy, Richard Anthony, and Peter Franz Mittag. The Roman Imperial Coinage II.3: From AD 117 to AD 138 - Hadrian. Spink, 2019, p. 58. 4. Abdy, Richard A. “Chronology of Sabina’s Coinage at the Roman Mint.” Revue Numismatique, vol. 6, no. 171, 2014, pp. 73–91., doi:10.3406/numi.2014.3242, pp. 84-85. 5. RSC nos. 56, 56b in Seaby, Herbert Allen. Roman Silver Coins. Seaby, 1968, p. 136. RSC 56a (RIC 1st ed., 422b), which supposedly depicts the empress with a diadem, is likely a misdescribed version of the corn-wreathed bust type. Abdy and Mittag (op. cit.) do not recognize this type and I have been unable to find an example online that clearly illustrates the empress wearing a stephane as opposed to a wreath of corn ears. 6. Abdy, op. cit., p. 85. 7. Ibid. 8. Abdy and Mittag, op. cit., p. 58. 9. Ibid. 10. Adembri, B. "In margine all'iconografia di Sabina." In Adembri, Benedetta, and Rosa Maria Nicolai. Vibia Sabina: Da Augusta a Diva. Electa, 2007, p. 81. Translated and cited by Brennan, T. Corey. Sabina Augusta: an Imperial Journey. Oxford University Press US, 2020, p. 188. 11. Abdy, op. cit., p. 85. 12. Sear, David R. Roman Coins and Their Values II: The accession of Nerva to the overthrow of the Severan dynasty AD 96 - AD 235, London, Spink, 2002, p. 189. 13. Abdy, op. cit., p. 85 and Abdy and Mittag, op. cit., p. 59. 14. Brennan, T. Corey. Sabina Augusta: an Imperial Journey. Oxford University Press US, 2020, p. 188. 15. Opper, Thorsten. Hadrian: Empire and Conflict. British Museum Press, 2008, p. 220.
Very nice, @Roman Collector ! And, I really like that Denarius. Nope, have no further comments. You said it all very well. SABINA RI Sabina 117-137 Denarius 3.18g Venus standing right holding an apple RSC73
Superb write-up! I picked up an example of the type earlier in the year, which I think I have posted a couple times- coinage of Sabina in general is not common, but deification issues are scarce and don't often appear at auctions. Mine has the elaborately coiled hairstyle that rarely makes an appearance on her coinage, but was commonplace on that of her mother and grandmother, who were also deified Another 2020 add was a perhaps more rare consecration issue for her husband - I wonder if the Romans believed that in the afterlife she was finally free of him, or if her soul was bound to forever suffer as he sought to eternally continue his affair with the (also deified) Antinous Looking at the coins side by side, I wonder if the portraits were engraved by the same hand? Certainly would make sense, I am sensing the same feeling of gravitas from both examples.
