Tiberius augustus, 14 – 37
Aureus, Lugdunum 14-16, AV 7.82 g. TI CAESAR DIVI – AVG F AVGVSTVS Laureate head of Tiberius r. Rev. DIVOS AVGVST – DIVI F Bare head of Augustus r., above, six-pointed star. C 3. BMC 29. RIC 24. CBN 1. Faces of Power 16 (this reverse die). Calicó 311. Very rare and undoubtedly among the finest specimens known. Two gentle portraits of fine style struck well on a full flan, an almost invisible mark on obverse field, otherwise extremely fine Privately purchased in 1983. This coin is sold with an export licence issued by the government of Spain. This aureus testifies to the definitive adoption and the ensuing appointment of Tiberius as Augustus heir. It is worth mentioning how the minting of this extremely rare issue occurred so shortly before the death of the emperor, about whose demise various leading inferences have been made. We indeed know from sources that Augustus retired to Nola and, suspicious of his entourage, would eat only figs from his gardens. All the same, this cautious diet did not save him from a possible death by poisoning. Some have suggested the involvement of Livia, a powerful and controversial personality who may have been the shadowy orchestrator behind at least some of the inexplicable deaths of many heirs previously appointed by Augustus. The first to succumb to a sudden and questionable disease, in 23 BC, was his nephew Marcellus, son of the emperor's sister Octavia and most loved potential heir. Next in line for succession was now Agrippa, but he also was not to outlive the Emperor, for an untimely albeit natural death took him in 12 BC. Then it was the turn of Agrippa's sons Lucius Caesar, who died of a suspicious illness in Gaul in 2 AD, his brother Gaius having died two years previously of a fatal wound while at war in the East. Agrippa Postumus, younger brother of Gaius and Lucius, thus became the last male descendant of the Emperor who, if the truth be told, despised him for his intractability and madness, to the point of promoting a "senatus consultum" to have him transferred to an island, to live in perpetual isolation surrounded by a body of soldiers (Suet., Augusti Vita, 65). However, after Augustus' death the position of Agrippa, next of blood, as legitimate heir – madness notwithstanding – could not be challenged and so he was immediately disposed of by one of his guardians. Tiberius path to the throne was finally clear.