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Hadrian, 11 August 117 - 10 July 138 A.D., Roman Provincial Egypt
A life-size, black basalt statue of the Apis Bull inscribed with a dedication of Hadrian was discovered in the underground vaults of the Serapeum. It is now in Room 6 of the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria. The Apis Bull statue appears on Alexandrian coins of Hadrian and other emperors. The custom of the Apis Bull had been reluctantly preserved by Augustus. He refused to "enter the presence of Apis . . . declaring that he was accustomed to worship gods, not cattle." Dio, 51.16:5. "In spite of this declaration, two stelai from the Bucheum at Hermonthis in Upper Egypt show Augustus" dressed as a Pharaoh sacrificing to bovine deities. Richard Ashton, The City of Roman and Byzantine Egypt, p. 198. Ptolemy III built the Serapeum, the largest and most magnificent of the temples of Alexandria, containing a giant statue by Briaxis. Almost 400 years later, Hadrian rebuilt the temple, which may have been among the temples of Alexandria damaged in 117 A.D. during the Kitos War by the Jewish forces under Lukuas. Eusebius of Caearea, "Historia Ecclesiastica, books iv & v, written in the 4th century A.D." The Apis Bull depicted here may have been that bull, a replacement for an earlier similar statue.RX92004. Bronze diobol, Geissen 1102; Dattari 2009; BMC Alexandria p. 95, 811; SNG Cop 391; SRCV II 3815; Kampmann 32.610; Emmett 1114.18; Milne -, F, brown tone, beveled obverse edge, tiny edge crack, scratches, minor encrustations, Alexandria mint, weight 8.653g, maximum diameter 24.7mm, die axis 0o, 29 Aug 133 - 28 Aug 134 A.D.; obverse AVT KAIC TPAIAN AΔPIANOC, laureate and draped bust right; reverse Apis bull right, crescent on side, altar-candelabrum in front, L IH (year 18) above; ex FORVM (2010); SOLD
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