EGYPT. Alexandria. Antinoüs, died 130. Diobol (Bronze, 24 mm, 8.78 g, 12 h), year 19 of Hadrian = 134/5. ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΥ ΗΡⲰΟC Draped bust of Antinoüs to right, wearing hemhem crown. Rev. [L I-Θ] Antinoüs as Hermes on horseback to right, holding kerykeion in his right hand. Dattari (Savio) 2084-5. Emmett 1348/19. K&G 34a.3. RPC III 6082. Rare and unusually well preserved. Surfaces a little rough, otherwise, very fine.



In 130, Hadrian arrived in Egypt along with his entourage, which included the young Antinoüs, Hadrian's lover, whom he had met seven years earlier in Claudiopolis in Bithynia. During a lion hunt in a Libyan desert, the emperor narrowly saved the young man's life, but a sad fate befell him shortly thereafter during a cruise on the Nile. The details of the events are sketchy: all we know is that Antinoüs somehow fell overboard and was pulled underwater by the stream, drowning. The official version was already questioned in antiquity, however. Theories range from murder perpetrated by one of his rivals or a gruesome human sacrifice meant to reinvigorate Hadrian's failing health. Whatever the truth behind Antinoüs' death, Hadrian was devastated, and he honored his fallen lover by founding an eponymous city, Antinoöpolis, at the spot where he died and the young man was worshiped as a hero thereafter.