- The Collaborative Numismatics Project
  Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! NumisWiki Is An Enormous Unique Resource Including Hundreds Of Books And Thousands Of Articles Online!!! The Column On The Left Includes Our "Best of NumisWiki" Menu If You Are New To Collecting - Start With Ancient Coin Collecting 101 NumisWiki Includes The Encyclopedia of Roman Coins and Historia Nummorum If You Have Written A Numismatic Article - Please Add It To NumisWiki All Blue Text On The Website Is Linked - Keep Clicking To ENDLESSLY EXPLORE!!! Please Visit Our Shop And Find A Coin You Love Today!!!

× Resources Home
Home
New Articles
Most Popular
Recent Changes
Current Projects
Admin Discussions
Guidelines
How to
zoom.asp
Index Of All Titles


BEST OF

AEQVITI
Aes Formatum
Aes Rude
The Age of Gallienus
Alexander Tetradrachms
Ancient Coin Collecting 101
Ancient Coin Prices 101
Ancient Coin Dates
Ancient Coin Lesson Plans
Ancient Coins & Modern Fakes
Ancient Counterfeits
Ancient Glass
Ancient Metal Arrowheads
Ancient Oil Lamps
Ancient Pottery
Ancient Weapons
Ancient Wages and Prices
Ancient Weights and Scales
Anonymous Follis
Anonymous Class A Folles
Antioch Officinae
Aphlaston
Armenian Numismatics Page
Augustus - Facing Portrait
Brockage
Bronze Disease
Byzantine
Byzantine Denominations
A Cabinet of Greek Coins
Caesarean and Actian Eras
Campgates of Constantine
Carausius
A Case of Counterfeits
Byzantine Christian Themes
Clashed Dies
Codewords
Coins of Pontius Pilate
Conditions of Manufacture
Corinth Coins and Cults
Countermarked in Late Antiquity
Danubian Celts
Damnatio Coinage
Damnatio Memoriae
Denomination
Denarii of Otho
Diameter 101
Die Alignment 101
Dictionary of Roman Coins
Doug Smith's Ancient Coins
Draco
Edict on Prices
ERIC
ERIC - Rarity Tables
Etruscan Alphabet
The Evolving Ancient Coin Market
EQVITI
Fel Temp Reparatio
Fertility Pregnancy and Childbirth
Fibula
Flavian
Fourree
Friend or Foe
The Gallic Empire
Gallienus Zoo
Greek Alphabet
Greek Coins
Greek Dates
Greek Coin Denominations
Greek Mythology Link
Greek Numismatic Dictionary
Hellenistic Names & their Meanings
Hasmoneans
Hasmonean Dynasty
Helvetica's ID Help Page
The Hexastyle Temple of Caligula
Historia Numorum
Holy Land Antiquities
Horse Harnesses
Illustrated Ancient Coin Glossary
Important Collection Auctions
Islamic Rulers and Dynasties
Julian II: The Beard and the Bull
Julius Caesar - The Funeral Speech
Koson
Kushan Coins
Later Roman Coinage
Latin Plurals
Latin Pronunciation
Legend
Library of Ancient Coinage
Life in Ancient Rome
List of Kings of Judea
Medusa Coins
Maps of the Ancient World
Military Belts
Military Belts
Mint Marks
Monogram
Museum Collections Available Online
Nabataea
Nabataean Alphabet
Nabataean Numerals
The [Not] Cuirassed Elephant
Not in RIC
Numismatic Bulgarian
Numismatic Excellence Award
Numismatic French
Numismatic German
Numismatic Italian
Numismatic Spanish
Parthian Coins
Patina 101
Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew Script Styles
People in the Bible Who Issued Coins
Imperial Mints of Philip the Arab
Phoenician Alphabet
Pi-Style Athens Tetradrachms
Pricing and Grading Roman Coins
Reading Judean Coins
Representations of Alexander the Great
Roman Coin Attribution 101
Roman Coin Legends and Inscriptions
Roman Keys
Roman Locks
Roman Militaria
Roman Military Belts
Roman Mints
Roman Names
romancoin.info
Rome and China
Sasanian
Satyrs and Nymphs
Scarabs
Serdi Celts
Serrated
Siglos
The Sign that Changed the World
Silver Content of Parthian Drachms
Star of Bethlehem Coins
Statuary Coins
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
Syracusian Folles
Taras Drachms with Owl Left
The Temple Tax
The Temple Tax Hoard
Test Cut
Travels of Paul
Tribute Penny
Tribute Penny Debate Continued (2015)
Tribute Penny Debate Revisited (2006)
Tyrian Shekels
Uncleaned Ancient Coins 101
Vabalathus
Venus Cloacina
What I Like About Ancient Coins
Who was Trajan Decius
Widow's Mite
XXI

   View Menu
 

Sabina






Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.

   SABINA   (Julia), the consort of Hadrian,
daughter of Mitidia, and great niece of Trajan,
by his sister Marciana. History has not recorded
the name of her father. She was given
in marriage A.D. 100, to Hadrian, who, through
this alliance and the influence of Plotina, was
enabled to become the successor of Trajan.
But although coins in plenty boast of Concordia
Augusta
, and some even exhibit Hadrian and
Sabina together, yet mutual disagreements in
domestic life, which resulted fatally to Sabina,
abundantly prove that these nuptuals were uncongenial to Hymen. The infamous passion of the emperor for his minion Antinous was partly the
cause, and a just one too, of that irreconcileable
hatred which Sabina entertained towards her
husband. And, he no sooner saw himself in possesion of the throne, than, throwing off the mask
of pretended courtesy and of conjugal regard, he
became the morose and persecuting tyrant of
his wife. On her arrival at Rome, this princess
received the title of Augusta (SABINA. AVGVSTA.
IMP. HADRIANI AVG.) ; and the senate flattered
her with the name Nova Ceres. But treated
by Hadrian rather as his slave than as his
empress, her life was one continual course of
vexation and unhappiness. Nor on her side was
there any display of resignation or forbearance
under the insults and indignities to which she
was exposed by the brutality of him who ought
to have been her protector. She openly declared
that the sterility of their marriage was owing to
a determination on her part never to bear
children to him, lest she should give birth
to one who should be more wicked than his
father, and become the scourge of mankind.
Enraged at her alienation and reproaches,
Hadrian though feeling himself sinking
under a mortal disease, had the barbarity to
compel her to commit suicide, or, as Roman
writers singularly express it, ad mortem voluntariam
compulsa est
. It has been said he
poisoned her himself (A.D. 137), a short time
before his own death,-- and, according to the
sarcastic remark of Beauvais, satisfait de
l'avoir ravie à la terre, il la fit placer dans
le ciel!
-- That she was canonised into the
number of goddesses we indisputably learn
from the coins of diva Sabina ; but that this
honour was conferred on her by Hadrian, is
scarcely credible under all the circumstances of
the case. Eckhel argues this point with his
usual intelligence, and refers to the two following
silver coins, as confirmatory of his opinion,
that Sabina was consecrated not by her husband,
but by his successor Antoninus, whose mother
she was by the law of adoption.
DIVA. AVG. SABINA.-- Head of Sabina veiled.
Rev. CONSECRATIO.-- An eagle standing ; on
others, Sabina with hasta in right hand, carried
upwards by an eagle.
The second medal has the same obverse.
Rev. PIETATI. AVG.-- An altar.
According to the opinion of some ancient
writers, Antoninus was called Pius because he
wrought upon the senate by the carnestness of
his entreaties to decree celestial honours to his
father Hadrian. He would seem to have
obtained the same requested object in favour
of Sabina, from the coinage of this medal with
the type of an Altar, which he dedicated to her
with the epigraph of Pietas Augusta.
This empress is described by historians as
particularly handsome and well formed, of noble
manners and gracious demeanour, of great rectitude
and even elevation of mind, in short a truly
virtuous woman, whose temper, naturally amiable,
had been soured only by the ill treatment of her
husband. That her countenance beamed with
an air of majestic dignity will readily be believed
by those who have contemplated the lineaments
of her profile and the symmetry of her bust
handed down on coins of the Imperial and Senatorial
mints of Rome. The head dress of Sabina,
like those of Marciana, Matidia, and Plotina,
is arranged in different styles, sometimes with
the hair flowing straight and terminating in a
long braid behind, with or without a veil ; at
other times bound upwards tightly from the back
of the neck in a circular knot, and ornamented
with a tiara or diadem in front, but almost
always with great elegance, proving the diversity
and inconstancy of female fashions, whilst the
medal fixes the epocha of her change.
The Roman coins of Sabina are common in
silver and brass, except medallions ; but the
gold are somewhat rare.

View whole page from the Dictionary Of Roman Coins
All coins are guaranteed for eternity