Forum's Portrait Gallery
Most experienced collectors are able to tell what emperor issued a coin just by looking at the obverse portrait. This skill is impressive to non-collectors and beginners, but more importantly it is also useful to identify those coins so worn that legends cannot be easily read anymore. The gallery above is a display of characteristic portraits from coins and we hope it will be helpful to those seeking to identify roman coins.
The Twelve Caesars
Most experienced collectors are able to tell what emperor issued a coin just by looking at the obverse portrait. This skill is impressive to non-collectors and beginners, but more importantly it is also useful to identify those coins so worn that legends cannot be easily read anymore. The gallery above is a display of characteristic portraits from coins and we hope it will be helpful to those seeking to identify roman coins.
Links to Other Pages of FORVM's Portrait Gallery
The Twelve Caesars
The Adoptive Emperors
The Severan Period
Crisis and Decline
Recovery of the Empire
The Secessionist Empires
The Tetrarchy
Constantinian Era
The Late Empire
The 12 Caesars in Gold - Joe Geranio
A set of the Twelve Caesars in gold. Includes the following aurei: ,bJulius Caesar / A. Hirtius (8.11 gm). CRI 56. Good VF // Augustus / Gaius and Lucius Caesars (7.90 gm). RIC 206. Good VF // Tiberius / Livia (7.77 gm). RIC 25. VF // Gaius Caligula / Divvs Augustus (7.60 gm). RIC 1. Fine, ex jewelry // Claudius / Pax (7.78 gm). RIC 38. VF // Nero / Jupiter seated left (7.73 gm). RIC 52. Good VF // Galba / Roma (7.66 gm). RIC 59. VF // Otho / Victory (7.25 gm). RIC 13. Fine, ex jewelry // ; A VITELLIVS GER IMP AVG P MAX TR P / VESTA P R QVIRITIVM (7.32 gm). RIC -. Near EF, a few scuff marks // Vespasian / Pax (7.10 gm). RIC 18. Fine // Titus, Caesar / Annona (5.44 gm). RIC 218 (Vespasian). Fine, ex jewelry // Domitian, Caesar / Domitian on horseback (7.01 gm). RIC 232. From our Friends at CNG.
I've tried to add as many profile
portraits (from our friends at the
Julio Claudian Iconographic Association) as possible to
help with your journey.
Roman Emperor Augustus as Pontifex Maximus,
BC 12
Palazzo Massimo, Rome
This most famous statue comes from the Via Labicana. The solemn look of Augustus refers to portraits of Hellenistic Royals. It is sometimes assumed that this representation of Augustus was created after the death of the emperor, who
presents himself here as Pontifex Maximus, which was the highest religious position in the Roman Empire. He adopted this ministry in 12 A.D. (photo Hans Ollerman-not for re-use without permission)
Profile to help with Julio Claudian Numismatic Studies- Augustus
This relief
head, which was inserted in to a modern background slab in the early 19ith century, depicts
Augustus with minor straits of age, a characterisation used regularly during the reigns of his successors
Tiberius,
Caligula and
Claudius. (Used with Permission from our
Julio Claudian Member Rien Bongers)
Acquired in Rome in 1791. Marble, 30-50 AD.
Tiberius (14-37 A.D) Bronze Portrait -Museo Archeologico Provinciale, Brindisi -
(Used with Permission from our
Julio Claudian Member Rien Bongers)
Tiberius (14-37 A.D) Bronze Portrait -Museo Archeologico Provinciale, Brindisi -
(Used with Permission from our
Julio Claudian Member Rien Bongers)
Caligula- 37-41 A.D.
(Used with Permission from our
Julio Claudian Member Rien Bongers) I first identified this portrait as
Caligula in 2006, you can see by the tag below it is listed as a portrait reminscent of
Caligula?
http://portraitcaligula.blogspot.com/2006/11/unpublished-portrait-of-caligula.html Pozzuoli, Rione
Terra; cistern of the
furthest eastern edge of the 'cardio' of S. Procolo. Medium/fine grained with parian marble. First decade of the 1st century. This portrait depicts a young prince from the Julio-Claudian family; the hairstyle with the slightly puffed-up fringe, arranged in a 'swallow's tail', almost in the centre of the brow to form a little connection with the right eye, distinguishes the iconography of some of the descendents of
Augustus. Regarding the physiological features, the portrait is remniscent of
portraits of
Germanicus or his sons, in particular
Caligula, emperor from 37 to 41 AD.
Caligula- 37-41 A.D. (Used with Permission from our Julio Claudian Member Rien Bongers) I first identified this portrait as Caligula in 2006, you can see by the tag below it is listed as a portrait reminscent of Caligula?
http://portraitcaligula.blogspot.com/2006/11/unpublished-portrait-of-caligula.htmlPozzuoli, Rione
Terra; cistern of the furthest eastern edge of the 'cardio' of S. Procolo. Medium/fine grained with parian marble. First decade of the 1st century.
This portrait depicts a young prince from the Julio-Claudian family; the hairstyle with the slightly puffed-up fringe, arranged in a 'swallow's tail', almost in the centre of the brow to form a little connection with the right eye, distinguishes the iconography of some of
the descendents of
Augustus. Regarding the physiological features, the portrait is remniscent of
portraits of
Germanicus or his sons, in particular
Caligula, emporer from 37 to 41 AD.
Roman Emperor Claudius.
From Cerveteri, Italy.
Time of Emperor Claudius, A.D.41-54.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. (Photo from Hans Ollermann)
Roman Emperor Claudius.
From Cerveteri, Italy.
Time of Emperor Claudius, A.D.41-54.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. (Photo from Hans Ollermann)
A ROMAN BRONZE IMAGO CLIPEATA OF THE EMPEROR CLAUDIUS CIRCA MID TO LATE 1ST CENTURY A.D.
This is very rare to find a Julio Claudian Princeps on something other than coinage or in the round. This radiate portrait of Claudius quite rare and shows the Princeps as Pontifex Maximus (see items flanked rt. and left) simpuvium and littus. Claudius ruled from 41-54 A.D.
Of hammered sheet, sculpted in high relief within the concave tondo, the Emperor depicted wearing a
radiate crown, with a full cap of short comma-shaped locks of hair, a single hooked lock before each prominent ear, with a broad cranium and tapering chin, his
face with emphatic signs of aging in the two furrows of the forehead and bags under his wide eyes, the pupils articulated, the brows modelled, the rounded nose with pronounced naso-labial folds, the small mouth with full lips, the neck creased, wearing a
toga with V-shaped folds at the neck and a
pallium over the shoulders, the
bust flanked by the
symbols of the office of
pontifex maximus, a dipper (simpuvium) to the left and a wand (
lituus) to the right, framed by a raised band of Lesbian kymation off set by beading, the edges folded over a lead backing
9 3/4 in. (24.7 cm.)
diameterProvenance:
Found at the Roman settlement of Derventio, near Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, England in 1991.
The Property of a Gentleman; Christie's,
London, 8 July 1992, lot 168.
The Property of a Gentleman; Christie's,
London, 5 July 1995, lot 197.
with Royal-Athena Galleries,
New York, 1996 (Art of the Ancient World, 1997, no. 53).
Notes:
THE STAMFORD BRIDGE TONDO PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTION
Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus was born in
Lyon, France (ancient
Lugdunum) in 10 B.C. He was the youngest son of
Drusus and
Antonia the Younger (the niece of
Augustus and daughter of Marc Antony). Due to
poor health and a pronounced stammer, his family assumed that he would never achieve success. According to Suetonius (Lives of the Caesars:
Claudius, III,2), even his own mother considered him "a monster, a man whom Mother Nature had begun to
work upon but then flung aside." He was not granted any major position during the reigns of
Augustus or
Tiberius, but in 37 A.D., during the reign of his nephew
Caligula, he shared the consulate and presided at the public games in the Emperor's absence.
Claudius was possibly involved in the plot to assassinate
Caligula, and he succeeded his nephew at the age of 51 as the fourth Emperor of
Rome on 24 January 41 A.D. (see
Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, pp. 129-134 and Varner, ed., From
Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture, p. 114). In 43 A.D.
Claudius ordered the invasion of Britain by a force of 40,000 soldiers. Following the successful campaign, Camulodunum (Colchester) was made the capital. After his murder in 54 A.D.,
Claudius was deified by a decree of the Senate under
Nero. A temple was begun at Camulodunum in his
honor, but was destroyed during the Boudican revolt of 60 A.D. Another was completed in
Rome by
Vespasian.
The presence of the
radiate crown worn by
Claudius on the Stamford Bridge Tondo suggests that, like the temples dedicated in his
honor, this portrait was a
posthumous creation, as Claudius's successor
Nero was the first Roman emperor represented wearing such a crown during his lifetime (see Varner, op. cit., p. 128). The discovery of the Stamford Bridge Tondo in Yorkshire attests to Claudius's popularity in Britain. Its original function is unknown.
For another imago clipeata of
Claudius now in the Louvre see p. 166 in Massner, "Zum Stilwandel im Kaiserporträt claudisher Zeit" in Die Regierungszeit des Kaisers
Claudius (41-54 n. Chr.).
NERO - (photo by William Storage) See his Rome 101 Site for Great Portrait Site!
The "Palatine Nero" - Museo Palatino (formerly Terme inv. 618). For a detailed disussion of the portraiture of Nero, see www.rome101.com/Portraiture/Nero/
NERO - (photo by William Storage) See his Rome 101 Site for Great Portrait Site!
The "Palatine Nero" - Museo Palatino (formerly Terme inv. 618). For a detailed disussion of the portraiture of Nero, see www.rome101.com/Portraiture/Nero/
The Julio Claudian Iconographic Association is a non profit discussion group for those interested in Julio Claudian portrait study from Princeps Augustus to Nero. We have over 400 members from coin collectors to Art History professors.A target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/
Joe Geranio
JCIA
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