Tiberius (AD 14-37). AV aureus (19mm, 7.72 gm, 4h). NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 3/5, brushed. Lugdunum, ca. AD 14-17. TI CAESAR DIVI-AVG F AVGVSTVS, laureate head of Tiberius right / PONTIF-MAXIM, Livia, as Pax, seated right, grounded scepter in right hand, olive branch upward in left, feet on stool; chair with plain legs, double line below. Calicó 305d. RIC I 25. Intriguing reverse style in which the upper ground line extends until the base of the scepter. Ex Heritage Auctions, Auction 3064 (20 April 2018), lot 30260. The son of Augustus' wife Livia by her previous marriage to a member of the aristocratic Claudian family, Tiberius Claudius Nero was born in 42 BC in the waning days of the Roman Republic. His path to supreme power was too circuitous to relate here, but upon the death of Augustus in AD 14, Tiberius was a weary 54-year-old who didn't truly want the job of emperor anymore. Nevertheless, Tiberius' first years as emperor went fairly smoothly, marred only by the death of the popular Germanicus in AD 19. Still, Tiberius longed to leave the hubbub of Rome behind. He attempted to retire in stages, giving more and more power to his unscrupulous Praetorian Prefect Sejanus, who plotted the arrests and murders of nearly the whole Julio-Claudian family. Heartsick and tired of intrigues, Tiberius retired permanently to the luxurious island retreat of Capri in AD 27, allowing Sejanus to run wild and destroy himself by overreaching. Tiberius died embittered and unloved in AD 37, leaving the succession to his deranged nephew Gaius 'Caligula,' perhaps as a cruel joke on the Roman people. It is unlikely he ever knew about the most momentous event of his reign, the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Judea. Like Tiberius himself, his coinage was intensely conservative, with only a single precious metal type in use for almost the entirety of his 23-year reign. The reverse is commonly thought to depict his mother Livia in the guise of the goddess Pax, holding an olive branch and scepter. HID09801242017 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

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