Constantine I VIRTVS PERPETVA AVG; Hercules strangling the Nemean Lion

A new acquisition...no doubt it will be in my top 10 for the year.


RIC says that this type; which was reserved for Constantine alone, suggests that Constantine, “so strongly based in Gaul, was still an object of special respect and even perhaps of special hope.”





Constantine I
A.D. 307- 308
26mm 7.8g
CONSTANTINVS P F AVG; laureate head right.
VIRTVS PERPETVA AVG; Hercules strangling the Nemean Lion; club below to right.
In ex. S T
RIC VI Ticinum 99

 

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Definitely a rare type. Great addition, Victor.

 

Yes, it is pretty rare. There are only four examples on acsearch (this one isn't up yet) and none as nice as this example.

 

Great coin, very interesting reverse! Not just a reference to Constantine's Tetrarchic pedigree (I'm assuming), but an homage to a very old image on ancient Italian coins.

There always seem to have been plenty of Roman coins showing Hercules with clubs and lion skins -- but, as far as I can see, this particular scene of Hercules strangling the lion seems absent until only recently, with Diocletian & Maximian. (I don't think it appears on Provincials either.)

So, it seems like there may have been almost four centuries since it had last appeared on a Roman coin -- with Republican Publicius Denarius (RRC 380/1)? (Hercules didn't go out of fashion, but that design seems to have.)

It had been a very common image on Classical Greek coins of Magna Graecia, of course.

Not the best example, but about 600 years earlier, a Tarentine Diobol, c. 325-280 with similar reverse:

Calabria Tarentum, AR Diobol (12mm, 1.02g), circa 325-280 BCE.
Obv: Head of Athena r., wearing Attic helmet decorated with circles.
Rev: Herakles standing r., strangling Nemean lion.
Ref: Vlasto 1376; HNI 976.
Prov: Ex Elvira Clain-Stefanelli Coll., ex Naville Numismatics 38 (10 Mar 2018), Lot 15​

 

This coin is even more interesting because the ancient writer Photius tells a story of how Constantine had to fight a lion...even though I don't believe this event actually happened. I think it is a rhetorical invention meant to make Constantine seem more heroic and compare him to Hercules.

“At that time Maximin, governor of Asia Minor,who happened to be there, determined to lay a plot against the youth and set him to fight with a savage lion. But Constantine overcame and slew the beast…”

 

This is the lion that was featured on old roman graffiti art during Constantine's era , they called him "Lippy the Lion". Could be this is the lion Constantine slayed. Doesn't look like he would put up much of a fight.