Hercules.....I mean Commodus was born today! Commodus (177 - 192 A.D.) AR Denarius 189 A.D O: M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT, Laureate head right. R: PIETATI SENATVS, CVPP, Commodus standing right, holding roll, clasping hands with senator standing left, holding scepter. Rome mint RIC III 194 cor, RSC II 408 3.649g Commodus (177 - 192 A.D.) Æ18 of Philippopolis, Thrace O: AV KOMMODOC ANTONINOC laureate head right. R: FILIPPOPOLEITWN crescent and 4 stars. 18mm 4.5g Varbanov 1006 Published on Wildwinds!
Yeah, Happy Birthday you bat [blank] crazy dude. A couple of my favorite coins are his portrayed as Hercules after he renamed Rome after himself, (Hercules). I keep them nearby to remind myself sometimes in life we simply go off the rails. We need to reign it in before we get choked out by a wrestler in a bathtub.
I like Hollywood's version of his death better - that's the way the story SHOULD have ended. Oh well, what can you do? Ae of Philippopolis
Good point. I am sure you studied Roman history in more detail than me, but I know the Empire was doomed once Trajan expanded it to it's limits early in the 2nd. century.
Happy B'day ol' chap ! With a special thought from me to you, as a sestertius of yours was the first roman coin I ever possessed : Commodus, Sestertius Minted in Rome, AD 192 L AEL AVREL CO---MM AVG P FEL, Laureate head of Commodus right HERCVLI ROMANO AVG, Hercules facing, head left, holding club and lion's skin, resting on trophy. SC in field 21,01 gr Ref : RCV #5752, Cohen #203, BMC # 314. RIC # 640. This is the very first roman coin I have ever possessed, gift from my grand father who found it digging a trench at Verdun battle during WWI The following comment is taken from the description of a similar example (in far much better condition) in NAC auction 54, # 477 : 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’. Q
Being not so much the student of ancient coins, but the student of history, that thought sprang to my mind as well. An evil historian?
Commodus really is one of those guys hat you can't collect just one. He was around for years and grew up on coins not to mention going a bi off he deep end. How much better off would Rome have been had Aurelius had no children! as Caesar I like this style beard from Rome: As Hercules: Barbarous but good silver: Alexandria mint denarius:
Yes, QUITE an Amateur Evil Historian! LOL, yes, I was going to picture a commode too, but was too lazy to search...
