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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3077209, member: 75937&quot;]That&#039;s really cool! It&#039;s important to note that this is Claudia Antonia, AD 27-66, daughter of Claudius (by Aelia Paetina), the half-sister of Claudia Octavia and Britannicus and step-sister of Nero. All coins portraying her were struck by her father Claudius. In every case she shares the canvas with her half-sister Claudia Octavia and/or her half-brother Britannicus, as on this coin. For this reason, I don&#039;t have a single coin of Claudia Antonia.</p><p><br /></p><p>She is not to be confused with Antonia Minor, the daughter of Marc Antony, who was 63 years older.</p><p><br /></p><p>Claudia Octavia was born sometime in late AD 39 to Emperor Claudius and his third wife, Valeria Messalina, who also happened to be his second cousin. Though she was Nero&#039;s step-sister, she was married off by her father to Nero in AD 53, when she was 13 or 14 years old. Here she is with her half-brother/husband on a tetradrachm from Alexandria:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]774231[/ATTACH]</p><p>Nero and Claudia Octavia.</p><p>Roman provincial billon tetradrachm, 11.1 g, 25.0 mm.</p><p>Egypt, Alexandria, AD 56-57.</p><p>Obv: ΝΕΡ ΚΛΑΥ ΚΑΙΣ ΣΕΒ ΓΕΡ ΑΥΤΟ, laureate head of Nero, right.</p><p>Rev: ΟΚΤΑΟΥΙΑ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΥ, bare-headed and draped bust of Octavia, right; L Γ before.</p><p>Refs: RPC 5202; BMC 119; SGI 657; Cologne 122; Milne 133; Emmett 127.</p><p><br /></p><p>Putting the fun in dysfunctional family, Nero went on to murder his mom, Agrippina II. With mommy out of the way, Nero tried to strangle Octavia on several occasions and had a well-known affair with Poppaea Sabina. When Poppaea became pregnant, Nero divorced Octavia, claiming she was barren, and married his mistress.</p><p><br /></p><p>The newly married couple tried to hide Octavia from the public, by having her exiled to the island of Pandateria (now Ventotene) on charges of adultery. Yes, his mistress was already pregnant with his child, but Octavia was the one charged with adultery. When Octavia complained, her friends were tortured. Unjust, right?</p><p><br /></p><p>The Romans thought so too, so the manifestations of sympathy for Octavia increased, and people demanded to have her back, thus forcing Nero&#039;s hand to use the ultimate solution: he had her killed in AD 62, when she was just 22 years old. There was a pathetic attempt to make it look like a suicide, by cutting her veins in a hot bath, but it was kind of hard to buy the suicide version, considering that Octavia&#039;s head was subsequently cut off and sent to Rome, as a gift for Poppaea. I can’t help but wonder what she did with the head.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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