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<p>[QUOTE="Curtis, post: 8238571, member: 26430"]Beautiful arch coins! And lucky you getting a trip <i>to Rome</i> and getting to return <i>home to the Netherlands</i>!</p><p><br /></p><p>I don't have his triumphal arch, but here is a coin of Nero that relates to ancient sources and monuments they described (and rather indirectly to the earlier fire of 64 CE).</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the Provincial version, but doubtless modeled on the Imperial AE Asses (e.g., for those right-facing bare head obv., RIC 415-416, 464, and others), and discussed by <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/suetonius/12caesars/nero*.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/suetonius/12caesars/nero*.html" rel="nofollow">Suetonius (Life of Nero 25:2)</a>:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>[After winning prize crowns for his musical performances, Nero] "placed the sacred crowns in his bed-chambers around the couches, as well as <b>statues representing him in the guise of a lyre-player; and he had a coin too struck with the same device</b>."</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>One can barely tell from the example below, but the reverse depiction of Nero-as-Apollo on these coins shows him with a radiate crown as well. This was, apparently, a device Nero became quite fond of, seeing himself as a sun god borrowing features of Apollo-Sol. I don't think we know exactly where he placed his statues of himself as Apollo (if only around the "bed-chambers" or elsewhere!) but the Colossus of Nero also wore a radiate crown.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin was likely struck during or immediately after Nero's musical tour of the Greek Games c. 66/7 CE, during which he also "liberated" Achaea. (No surprise, then, that various Greek cities and leagues struck coins in exactly the designs that would flatter his delusions of musical grandeur.)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1449815[/ATTACH]</p><p><b><font size="4">Roman Provincial. Thessaly, Koinon. <i>temp</i>. Nero. Aristion, <i>Strategos</i>. </font></b></p><p><font size="4"><b>AE Assarion or Diassarion</b> (22mm, 9.52 g, 6h). Struck c. 66/7 - 67/8 CE.</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Obv</b>: ΝЄΡΩΝ ΘЄCCΑΛΩΝ. Laureate head right </font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Rev</b>: APIΣTIΩN/OΣ ΣTPATH/ΓOY. Apollo Kitharoidos standing right, holding kithara in his left hand, playing it with his right.</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Ref</b>: BCD Thessaly II 931.1 var. (arrangement of legend); Burrer Em. 1, Series 1, 1.1 (A1/R1 – <i>this coin illustrated</i> on pl. 9); RPC I 1439 (<i>this coin cited</i> in RPC Supp 1 & Online, as Burrer 1.1).</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Prov</b>: Ex-BCD Collection; CNG e-Auction 325, "<a href="https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=sale&sid=711&cid=18920" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=sale&sid=711&cid=18920" rel="nofollow">Coinage of the Thessalian League from the BCD Collection</a>" (23 April 2014), lot 39; Peter J. Merani Collection (Part II); CNG e-Auction 490 (21 April 2021), Lot 65.</font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Curtis, post: 8238571, member: 26430"]Beautiful arch coins! And lucky you getting a trip [I]to Rome[/I] and getting to return [I]home to the Netherlands[/I]! I don't have his triumphal arch, but here is a coin of Nero that relates to ancient sources and monuments they described (and rather indirectly to the earlier fire of 64 CE). This is the Provincial version, but doubtless modeled on the Imperial AE Asses (e.g., for those right-facing bare head obv., RIC 415-416, 464, and others), and discussed by [URL='https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/suetonius/12caesars/nero*.html']Suetonius (Life of Nero 25:2)[/URL]: [INDENT][After winning prize crowns for his musical performances, Nero] "placed the sacred crowns in his bed-chambers around the couches, as well as [B]statues representing him in the guise of a lyre-player; and he had a coin too struck with the same device[/B]."[/INDENT] One can barely tell from the example below, but the reverse depiction of Nero-as-Apollo on these coins shows him with a radiate crown as well. This was, apparently, a device Nero became quite fond of, seeing himself as a sun god borrowing features of Apollo-Sol. I don't think we know exactly where he placed his statues of himself as Apollo (if only around the "bed-chambers" or elsewhere!) but the Colossus of Nero also wore a radiate crown. This coin was likely struck during or immediately after Nero's musical tour of the Greek Games c. 66/7 CE, during which he also "liberated" Achaea. (No surprise, then, that various Greek cities and leagues struck coins in exactly the designs that would flatter his delusions of musical grandeur.) [ATTACH=full]1449815[/ATTACH] [B][SIZE=4]Roman Provincial. Thessaly, Koinon. [I]temp[/I]. Nero. Aristion, [I]Strategos[/I]. [/SIZE][/B] [SIZE=4][B]AE Assarion or Diassarion[/B] (22mm, 9.52 g, 6h). Struck c. 66/7 - 67/8 CE. [B]Obv[/B]: ΝЄΡΩΝ ΘЄCCΑΛΩΝ. Laureate head right [B]Rev[/B]: APIΣTIΩN/OΣ ΣTPATH/ΓOY. Apollo Kitharoidos standing right, holding kithara in his left hand, playing it with his right. [B]Ref[/B]: BCD Thessaly II 931.1 var. (arrangement of legend); Burrer Em. 1, Series 1, 1.1 (A1/R1 – [I]this coin illustrated[/I] on pl. 9); RPC I 1439 ([I]this coin cited[/I] in RPC Supp 1 & Online, as Burrer 1.1). [B]Prov[/B]: Ex-BCD Collection; CNG e-Auction 325, "[URL='https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=sale&sid=711&cid=18920']Coinage of the Thessalian League from the BCD Collection[/URL]" (23 April 2014), lot 39; Peter J. Merani Collection (Part II); CNG e-Auction 490 (21 April 2021), Lot 65.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]
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