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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Cucumbor, post: 8168806, member: 4298&quot;]Nice one [USER=80952]@ambr0zie[/USER] and glad you recovered</p><p><br /></p><p>Nice Commodus portrait. So far I&#039;ve not been able to score a Commodus denarius to my taste that my wallet would also like. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you for giving me the opportunity to show off (again) my favorite roman coin, which happens to be a Commodus sestertius </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://img.colleconline.com/artefactimg/209e062469c946fc9c84a69229693703/26fbfbe9b6804aad919bb4ddfbc6be63.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><b>Commodus, Sestertius</b>- Rome mint, 192 CE</p><p>Wt.: 21.01 g</p><p>Obv.: L AEL AVREL CO---MM AVG P FEL,Laureate head of Commodus right</p><p>Rev.: HERCVLI ROMANO AVG,Hercules facing, head left, holding club and lion&#039;s skin, resting on trophy.SCin field</p><p>Ref : RCV #5752, Cohen #203</p><p><br /></p><p>My grandfather, born 1894, has been &quot;<i>lucky</i>&quot; enough to get involved in the whole WWI where he&#039;s been wounded five times (two actual wounds and three gas attacks). While digging a trench at Verdun battle (1916), he eventually found three coins that he carefully kept with him during three years (he&#039;s not been sent back home earlier than 1919). After the end of the war, being on a train, back home with two other &quot;<i>poilus</i>&quot; he decided he whould give one coin to each of them and keep the last one for himself (probably one of the first &quot;<i>ancient coin giveaway</i>&quot; in the 20th century). When I was 18, being the only one in the family showing an interest for coins he told me the story and gifted me with the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]YFtHjV4c4uw[/MEDIA]</p><p><br /></p><p>My grand dad finding it during his service and keeping it until the end of the war and for almost his entire life makes it the coin I will keep whatever occurs in my own life and/or to my coin collections.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin was minted the last year in Commodus&#039; rule, in 192 CE, as he&#039;d turn completely crazy finding himself being a reincarnation of Hercules. Even though the obverse doesn&#039;t show him with the lionskin, the reverse has an explicit legend and clearly shows the emperor/hercules with Hercules&#039; attributes.</p><p><br /></p><p>And to finish with, the following comment is taken from the description of a similar example (in far much better condition) in NAC auction 4, # 477 :<i>Few Roman coins excite as much commentary as those of Commodus, which show him possessed of Hercules. Not only do they present an extraordinary image, but they offer incontrovertible support to the literary record. The reports of Commodus’ megalomania and infatuation with Hercules are so alarming and fanciful that if the numismatic record was not there to confirm, modern historians would almost certainly regard the literary record as an absurd version of affairs, much in the way reports of Tiberius’ depraved behaviour on Capri are considered to be callous exaggerations. Faced with such rich and diverse evidence, there can be no question that late in his life Commodus believed that Hercules was his divine patron. Indeed, he worshipped the demigod so intensely that he renamed the month of September after him, and he eventually came to believe himself to be an incarnation of the mythological hero. By tradition, Hercules had fashioned his knotted club from a wild olive tree that he tore from the soil of Mount Helicon and subsequently used to kill the lion of Cithaeron when he was only 18 years old. Probably the most familiar account of his bow and arrows was his shooting of the Stymphalian birds while fulfilling his sixth labour. The reverse inscription HERCVLI ROMANO AVG (‘to the August Roman Hercules’) makes the coin all the more interesting, especially when put into context with those of contemporary coins inscribed HERCVLI COMMODO AVG, which amounts to a dedication ‘to Hercules Commodus Augustus’.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Sorry for the numerous people who already know the story. My excuse is we have new members here <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Q[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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