Aelius, Caesar Under Hadrian, July or August 136 - 1 January 138 A.D.
In 136, Aelius
was adopted by an aging and ailing Hadrian and made caesar, successor to
the throne. He had no military experience but had served as a senator
and had powerful political connections. He was known for luxurious
taste, an extravagant lifestyle, but also poor health. He was never to
become emperor, dying before Hadrian, on 1 January 138.
Also see ERIC - Aelius
References
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Delegido Moran, C. Aprovisionamiento, circulación y uso de la moneda de plata en Hispania (siglos I-III d.C.): El Tesoro de Llíria. (Valencia, 2014).
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Obverse Legends
LAELIVSCAESAR
LAELIVSCAESARTRPCOSII
Moneta Historical Reference
Lucius Aelius Caesar was born about 104 into an old Etruscan family and at birth was given the name of his grandfather and father, Lucius Ceionius Commodus. His grandfather and father had served as consuls, in 78 and 106 respectively. Aelius was married sometime before 130 to Domitia Lucilla, who was the daughter of Nigrinus, one of the four distinguished men whom the Senate had condemned to death for high treason at the commencement of Hadrian's reign at the urging of Attianus, Hadrian's Praetorian Praefect. Aelius became a praetor in 130, and on December 5 of that year his son Lucius Verus was born. In addition to Lucius Verus, Aelius and Domitia Lucilla had several daughters, of whom two are known by name, Ceionia and Fabia. Fabia was later engaged to Marcus Aurelius, but the engagement was broken.
Aelius was known as a wit, but given over to luxury. He is perhaps best remembered for a type of culinary dish and a type of bed which he invented. His wife complained of his sexual affairs, but he patiently explained to her that "the title of wife is one of honor and not one of pleasure."
Some believe that he first became a favorite of Hadrian when he was on Hadrian's trip up the Nile in 130, but when the childless Hadrian named him as his adoptive heir on August 10, 136, the Roman world was nevertheless stunned. Upon his adoption Lucius Ceionius Commodus was renamed Lucius Aelius Caesar (Aelius being Hadrian's family name). Rumors began that Aelius was chosen because he had became a second Antinous (Hadrian's boy-lover who had drowned on the Nile trip). When Hadrian's brother-in-law Servianus, who was now a nonagenarian, protested that perhaps his grandson Pedanius Fuscus Salinator would have been a better choice, the sick Emperor forced both of their suicides. There seemed to be nothing outstanding about Aelius and indeed his libertine ways contrasted sharply with the disciplined life of Hadrian.
A good case can be made that Aelius may actually have been the illegitimate son of Hadrian, with perhaps the strongest evidence being that after Aelius' death he mourned for him like a lost son, and even made the adoption of Lucius Verus by Antoninus Pius a condition of Pius' adoption by Hadrian. Hadrian had also arranged the engagement of Aelius' daughter, Fabia, to Pius, so in reality he arranged for Aelius' son to become an Augustus and Aelius' daughter to become an Augusta. The adoption of Aelius was marked by games and a donative.
Dictionary of Roman Coins
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AELIUS CAESAR - (Lucius Aurelius Cejonius Commodus Verus) was the son of Cejonius Commodus, a man of consular rank, descended from an illustrious Etrurian family. The date of his birth is unknown. On the death of Sabina, he was adopted by Hadrian, A. U. C. 888 or 889 (A. D. 135 or 36), and destined to the succession of the empire; declared Caesar under the name of Lucius Aelius Verus, made Praetor and Tribune of the people; and appointed prefect of Pannonia, which province he governed with wisdom and courage; created, for the first time, Consul, A. D. 137, and elected to his second consulate the following year. He was brother on Annius Verus and of Faustina the elder; married Domitia Lucilla. Of a handsome figure, dignified in physiognomy, and stately in carriage, he possessed a highly cultivated understanding, was learned, eloquent, and wrote with elegance in both prose and verse. Refined in his tastes, but effeminate in his habits, he fell an early victim to the inroads made on a weak constitution by voluptuousness and dissipation. Aelius returned from Pannonia to Rome A. D. 138, and died on the very day appointed for him to deliver a florid eulogium in honour of Hadrian 's kindness to him. His body was deposited in the tomb which Hadrian had built at Rome for his own mausoleum now the castle of St. Angelo, and that emperor caused several temples and statues to be raised to his memory.
On his coins he is styled L AELIVS CAESAR. They are more or less scarce, in all the three metals. His brass medallions are of the highest degree of rarity. Aelius is represented on all his coins with bare head, curly hair and beard, and a majestic countenance. Havercamp (in Museo Christinae, p. 69) has engraved, and Capt. Smyth cites from his own collection, a large brass of this prince, which with no other legend on its reverse than TR POT COS II and S C on the exergue, typifies "Fortune with her rudder and cornucopiae, meeting Hope, who advances in light vestments and bears the blossom before her. This elegant device alludes to the fortunate exaltation of Aelius, and the expectation of his becoming Emperor. But the hope was vain; and Hadrian, who had celebrated the adoption with magnificent games, a public largess, and a donative to the soldiers, could not conceal his chagrin on perceiving that Aelius was passing to a sepulcher rather than a throne. Alluding to the approaching apotheosis of the sickening caesar, the Emperor exclaimed - 'Ego Divum adoptavi, non filium ' And the event verified the prediction." (Descr. Cat. p. 114.) - The type above described is evidently taken from FORTVNA SPES on an aureus of Hadrian. - See Cavlus. Numis. Aurea Impp. Rom., No. 350.
Coin illustrated is from Arminius ' FORVM gallery.
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