Ancients: Aelius Caesar (AD 136-138). AV aureus (19mm, 7.41 gm, 5h). NGC Choice MS★ 5/5 - 5/5, Fine Style....

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Finest Certified Aelius Aureus

Aelius Caesar (AD 136-138). AV aureus (19mm, 7.41 gm, 5h). NGC Choice MS★ 5/5 - 5/5, Fine Style. Rome, AD 137. L•AELIVS-CAESAR, bare headed, draped bust of Aelius right, seen from front / TR-POT-COS-II, Pietas, veiled, standing right, acerrum in left hand, sprinkling incense with right hand over lit and garlanded altar to right; PIE-TAS across fields. RIC II.3 2629. Calicó 1447 (same dies). Absolutely superb portrait on a bright, flashy flan. A remarkable, high-relief obverse from fresh, exceptionally artistic dies.

From the Mirabilis Collection. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 135 (21 November 2022), lot 295 (realized 180,000 CHF hammer); Bolla Collection (Tkalec, Sale 28, February 2007), lot 39.

Aelius Caesar began life in around AD 104 as Lucius Ceionius Commodus, son of a distinguished senator who was consul in the year AD 106. Handsome and affable, Lucius entered public service in his 20s and rose steadily through the ladder of public offices until he attracted the attention of the Emperor Hadrian, who by the mid AD 130s was aging rapidly and searching for a suitable heir. Upon attaining the consulship in AD 136, Aelius was formally adopted by Hadrian and took the name Lucius Aelius Caesar, clearly marking him out as successor to the throne. Historians have long speculated as to why Hadrian chose the seemingly unimpressive Aelius, some even postulating that he was Hadrian's illegitimate son. In any case, his elevation was duly celebrated with elaborate games and Hadrian even coerced the deaths of two potential rivals, who were accused of plotting a coup. Aelius served another consulship in AD 137 and was granted the tribunician power, making him Hadrian's junior partner in government. He left for Pannonia that year to gain experience managing a province; however, the climate was hard on his already frail constitution, and he returned to Rome in the winter having contracted tuberculosis. He fell seriously ill on New Year's Eve and died early on 1 January AD 138, prompting Hadrian to remark that he had "leaned against a tottering wall." This beautiful gold aureus depicts the doomed heir Aelius with a luxuriant head of curls and a longer beard than Hadrian's, setting the style for the Antonine rulers that followed.

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