[ancients] Happy Birthday Lucius Verus!!

Happy Birthday Lucius Verus!

Lived : 15 December 130 - 169 AD
Reigned : 8 March 161 - 169 AD (co-augustus with Marcus Aurelius)

Even though it's also Nero's birthday today, I thought we could celebrate Lucius Verus's instead. Not as accomplished as Trajan, lacking the gravitas of Antoninus Pius, overshadowed by Marcus Aurelius, never quite as dissolute as Caligula, and not plain bonkers like Commodus, poor Lucius has always been written off as a lightweight in the history books. I guess that's what happens when your personal objectives as emperor are to gamble, chase stolas and togas, and throw sestertii into cook-shops all day (that last fact courtesy of Doug from an old CT thread).

Thankfully, I'm sure we coin collectors are not as prejudiced. So please post your Lucius Verus coins!



LUCIUS VERUS
AE20 of Caesarea, Cappadocia, 163 AD. Sydenham 360
O: AVTOKRA OYHROC CEBACTOC, laureate head right
R: KAICAREWN T P ARGAIW, Mount Argaeus, ETGamma below

Seeing as this is my only Lucius Verus coin, maybe some of us are just a little bit prejudiced afterall.

Z.

 

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Happy Birthday, Lucky-V

Sadly, I do not own a Lucius Verus coin (yup => man, I need to buy more coins!!)

 

I have two rather poor denarii:

OBV: L VERVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX, laureate head right
REV: FORT RED TR P VIII IMP V, Fortuna seated left, holding rudder & cornucopiae. COS III in ex.
Rome mint, Feb to Dec 168AD
2.5g, 19mm
RIC 586 (Marcus Aurelius)


OBV: L VERVS AVG ARMENICACVS, laureate head right
REV: TR P V IMP II COS II, Mars standing right, holding spear & leaning on shield
Rome mint, 164-5 AD
3.0g, 16mm
RIC 529 (Marcus Aurelius)

 

One of my better coins for Verus .
Lucius Verus 161-169 ad.
Sestertius, Rome 163-164 ad. RIC 1409
Victoria holding military trophy, Armenian at her feet.
Celebration of victories in Armenia .

Some planchet pits

 

my only coin of him


Lucius Verus (161 - 169)
AR Denarius
O: L VERVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX Laureate head right.
R:TR P VII IMP IIII COS III Aequitas standing facing, head left, holding scales and cornucopia.
Rome
RIC 576 (Aurelius), RSC 297
18.5mm
3.3g

 

hmmmmmmm

 

man, i don't have a LV...

 

Lucius Verus was a movie star:



Lucius Verus Sestertius Chariot

Obverse: Laureate head right / L VERVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX IPP VIIII
Reverse: Man driving chariot with four horses / COS II / S C in exergue
Bronze, 38mm, 18.10gm

An example of this tourist fake coin has appeared in at least two films,
"The Man Who Would Be King" (1975) and "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988)

 

No more Lucius? I am surprised.

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh, I am weak!!

=> ooow, but I love this coin ... yah, I went lookin' around and at first I saw this coin and I thought "stevex6, wow that coin is callin' you!!" ... but I didn't listen ...

... but after 10 hours of hearing that thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump in my head I freaked-out and I bought the coin!!

=> so please say "hey" to the third and the final compulsive buy of the day!!

Lucius Verus AE Sestertius
164 AD
Diameter: 33 mm
Weight: 26.69 grams
Obverse: L AVREL VERVS AVG ARMENIACVS, laureate head right
Reverse: TR P IIII IMP II COS II S-C, Victory standing right, placing a shield inscribed VIC/AVG in two lines on palm
Reference: RIC 1396, Cohen 249
Other: Nice portrait





=> dawgs, I really think that the portrait is pretty sweet, yes?

 

I was rooting for the Armenians..........

 

This one commemorates Verus' early death whilst on a campaign against the Marcomannen (germanic tribe) in the northern frontier.
Interestingly, my catalogue repudiates the theory that Verus was prone to vice and a life of dissipation, as is popularly believed. It attributes this false portrayal of Verus as an attempt by roman historians to further enhance the virtues of his predecessor, Marcus aurelius.

 

Two denarii of Lucius Aelius Aurelius Verus.
The Mars type has an exceptionally high profile on the obverse, almost like a little sculpture in silver.

 

Since much of the written history we've been left with is either propaganda, second/third/fourth hand records, or even pure fiction, we're likely to never know the truth without the aid of a time machine. I think there's a fair chance that what these old emperors were up to were never either as good or as bad as what was written up, with the real truth probably somewhere in between, and not half as interesting.

The fact remains though that those are some pretty nice coins you have.

 

The coin tossing story is from Julius Capitolinus who was one of the authors credited with the Augustan Histories of the late 4th century. Modern scholars argue about just how possible it is to find any truth in the books or the assignment of any part to any particular author. I think it would be safe to say that a very low budget Italian sword play would be as likely to hit on things accurately but we really have no reason to believe the stories in these books are false any more than we do that they are true. Written 300+ years after the events, we can compare them to the relatively recent stories we all know to be true about George Washington and the cherry tree. I wish I knew enough about Canadian culture 300 years ago to give an equivalent reference there. What was going on in Manitoba in 1700? What will history have to say about Mayor Ford in 2313? I was taught in college not to trust SHA or most Roman historians but today we know better than to trust the unbiased reportage of anyone ancient or modern.

 

Here is a dupondius I picked up Saturday from a dealer who knows nothing about world or ancients. I was thinking it was a Parthian war piece, but the hat is similar to the Armenian issue.

Sorry for the crummy pics, its actually very nice in hand. Any "gunk" that appears to be there is not.

 

medoraman => very cool coin (is that a set of armour on the reverse?) ... cool

 

Lucius Verus Sestertius
Obv:– L. AVREL VERVS AVG ARMENIACVS, Laureate head right
Rev:– TR P IIII IMP II COS II, S-C, Mars walking right, holding a trophy and spear
Minted in Rome. A.D. 164
Reference:– BMCRE 1109. RIC 1379

 

Lucius Verus Denarius
Obv:– IMP L AVREL VERVS AVG, Laureate head right
Rev:– CONCORD AVG TR P / COS II, Concordia seated left holding patera
Unlisted.
Notes - with many thanks to Curtis Clay for his help with the following information on this coin.
This is a somewhat scarce type for Verus on denarii. The RD hoard lists 9 specimens without TR P in the reverse legend and 6 specimens like this with TR P. Of the 6 RD coins with TR P, 4 showed head bare, 1 head bare with fold of cloak on shoulders, 1 bust draped with head bare. The last two were new variants, the first had been reported in Rivista ital. di num. 1907. New specimens of this coin can easily show new bust variants and this is one of them.
BMC lists ten different right-facing portrait types for Verus on aurei and denarii of 161, plus three left-facing types!