Hadrian, 117-138. Aureus (Gold, 18 mm, 7.27 g, 6 h), Rome, late 121-123. IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Hadrian to right. Rev. P M TR P COS III Hercules, nude, seated facing on pile of arms, holding club set on shields with his right hand and two arrows in his left; in front, round shield; to right, lion skin draped over cuirass. BMC 97. Calicó 1318. Cohen 1082. RIC 508. Rare and with a very interesting and unusual reverse type. Very fine.


This beautiful aureus of Hadrian, struck in the early 120s, depicts on the reverse a magnificent frontal portrayal of the heroic demigod Hercules. He is shown seated facing forward on a pile of arms, with the impenetrable skin of the Nemean lion - which he usually wears for protection - resting at his left side. In his right hand he holds his club, and in his left, his arrows, as if presenting them to the viewer. These arrows, dipped in the blood of the Lernaean Hydra, were fatally poisonous, killing anyone they so much as grazed. Heracles’ club, made of gnarled olive wood, was said to have been either a gift from Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and divine forger of Olympus, or one he fashioned himself on Mount Helicon near Thespiae in Boeotia - a mountain renowned for its two springs, Aganippe and Hippocrene, both sacred to the Muses.