EGYPT. Alexandria. Antinoüs, died 130. Drachm (Bronze, 35 mm, 24.02 g, 12 h), RY 19 of Hadrian = 135/6. ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΥ ΗΡⲰΟC Draped bust of Antinoüs to left, wearing hemhem crown.
Rev. L - I-Θ Antinoüs as Hermes on horseback to right, holding kerykeion in his right hand. Dattari (Savio) 2082. Emmett 1346.19. K&G 34a.1. RPC III online 6062.40 (
this coin). Well centered and with an attractive portrait. Very fine.
From the collection of Eric ten Brink, Leu Web Auction 26, 8-13 July 2023, 2931 (expertly cleaned since), and that of a historian ('Aus der Sammlung eines Altertumswissenschaftlers'), Künker 347, 22 March 2021, 149, previously privately acquired in November 1979.
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.
