20080219

Claudius CE 41-54 Provincial Egypt

Bi. Tetradrachm, 11.11 g, 26 mm, 12h (Yr. 6=CE 45-46)

Köln 88; BMC 75; Milne 110 (actually appears to be 104); RPC I 5164; Emmett 74(6)

O: TI KΛAYΔI KAIΣ ΣEBA ΓEPMANI AYTOKP, Laureate head of Claudius right; to lower r. Lς
R: MEΣΣAΛI-NA KAIΣ ΣEBAΣ, Messalina standing half-left, leaning on column, holding two grain-ears and figures of two children, the children are thought to be her children with Claudius, Octavia and Britannicus.

Ex: ANE

Acquisition: 2008.
Tantalus ID#35547

Then he married Valeria Messalina, daughter of his cousin Messala Barbatus. But when he learned that besides other shameful and wicked deeds she had actually married Gaius Silius, and that a formal contract had been signed in the presence of witnesses, he put her to death- Suetonius, Claudius 26

He had children by three of his wives,… by Messalina, Octavia and a son, at first called Germanicus and later Britannicus.-Suetonius, Claudius 27







'Let the games begin', from "I, Claudius" (1977)

20080218

Trebonianus Gallus CE 251-253 Provincial Syria

AE 29mm, 14.69 g, Antioch mint

GICV 4350

O: AYTOK K OYIB TPEB ΓΑΛΛOC CEB, laur cuir bust r.
R: ANTIOXEΩN MHTPO KOLΩN/Δ-E/ below SC, tetrastyle temple with statue of Tyche of Antioch with Orontes swimming at her feet. Ram leaping over the top of the temple.

Acquisition: 2004