Auction Name: 2026 January 12 NYINC World & Ancient Coins Platinum Session and Signature® Auction - New York

Lot Number: 34078

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/3129*34078

Lucius Verus, as Augustus (AD 161-169). AV aureus (19mm, 7.37 gm, 5h). NGC Choice MS 5/5 - 5/5, Fine Style. Rome, December AD 163-December AD 164. •L•VERVS AVG-ARMENIACVS, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Lucius Verus right, seen from behind / TR P IIII•IMP II COS II, Victory standing facing, head right, half-draped, left foot on globe, inscribing VIC / AVG on shield placed on palm tree. Calicó 2177 (same dies). RIC III (Marcus Aurelius) 525. Dimensionally bold with nearly pristine surfaces.

From The Mirabilis Collection. Ex the Collection of Jonathan Kern to Benefit Charity.

Born Lucius Ceionius Commodus, Lucius Verus was the son of Aelius Caesar, the favored heir of Emperor Hadrian. Aelius's premature demise in AD 138 thrust Lucius into the uncertainty of imperial succession. Hadrian instead chose to adopt Antoninus Pius as his replacement, a seasoned senator who agreed to ascend to the throne on the condition of a more hereditarily adoptive line of succession by naming both Lucius--the son of Hadrian's initial choice as heir--and Hadrian's great-nephew Marcus Aurelius as his heirs. Following the death of Antoninus Pius in 161, the Senate planned to confirm Marcus alone, but he insisted on Lucius's elevation to Augustus. Lucius would take on Marcus' family name, "Verus". Their co-reign forged an unprecedented partnership at the zenith of Roman power, amidst the distant thunder of Parthian aggression. Lucius, with the mantle of military leadership thrust upon him, embarked on a campaign to repel the eastern threat. His notorious affair with a low-born mistress caused Marcus to fast-track Lucius' marriage to his thirteen-year-old niece, Lucilla, in 163. Although Lucius spent the duration of the war living a life of luxury and licentiousness in Asia Minor, the success of his generals in reconquering the Armenian capital at Artaxata and sacking the Parthian capital at Csetiphon earned him a triumph in 166 and two new titles-Armeniacus and Parthicus Maximus. Yet these victories also sowed the seeds of catastrophe. As the Roman legions returned, they brought back with them an epidemic that would ravage the Empire-the Antonine Plague. Returning from the Germanic front in 169, Lucius succumbed to the merciless grip of smallpox, a victim of the very plague his victories had unwittingly unleashed.

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