Maximian, First Reign (AD 286-310). AV aureus (19mm, 6.20 gm, 12h). NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 3/5, scuff. Rome, AD 293-294. MAXIMIA-NVS P F AVG, laureate head of Maximian right / HERCVL-I DEBELLAT, Hercules, nude, standing facing, head left, battling the Lernaean Hydra, club in upraised right hand and preparing to strike one of the hydra's heads, another head grasped with his left hand, its serpentine body wrapped about his right leg; PROM in exergue. RIC - (unknown at time of publication). Calicó 4660. Popular Labors of Hercules type, perfectly centered with both sides showing full borders. Ex Nomisma S.p.a., Auction 62 (15 September 2020), lot 93; Gorny & Mosch, Auction 261 (4 March 2019), lot 845; Gorny & Mosch, Auction 240 (10 October 2016), lot 574; Künker, Auction 270 (2 October 2015), lot 8959; Hess/Leu (Luzern 1969), lot 541; Ernst Moritz Herzfelder Collection (Jacob Hirsch, Auction XXIX, 9 November 1910), lot 1343 Among the grand designs of Diocletian was an effort to restore the Roman religion to its former prominence. Toward this end, each of the ruling Tetrarchs was assigned to a "house" corresponding to the Roman deities Jupiter and Hercules, with Diocletian himself representing the former and his co-Augustus Maximian as the latter. Diocletian thus became the supreme ruler, while Maximian became his facilitator and "man of action." This obverse portrait of this astonishing aureus of Maximian from the mint of Rome gives him the blunt, manly look of a Roman Hercules, while the reverse depicts the hero in a ferocious struggle with the many-headed Hydra, one of his Twelve Labors. The symbolism draws a distinct parallel between the hydra slain by Hercules and the myriad challenges faced, and defeated in turn, by the Tetrarchic regime.

HID09801242017

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