Claudia Octavia (wife of Nero) Æ 27mm of Perinthus, Thrace. AD 54-62. ΟΚΤΑΟΥΙΑ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΗ, draped bust to right, wearing stephane / ΗΡΑ ΠΕ[Ρ]ΙΝΘΙΩΝ, statue of Hera of Samos to left. RPC I 1755.9 (this coin); Schönert-Geiss 255; Varbanov 3694. 10.56g, 27mm, 1h.

Very Fine. Very Rare.

This coin published at Roman Provincial Coinage Online (rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk);
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XVIII, 29 September 2019, lot 756;
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 133, 11 October 2004, lot 308.

Beloved by the people of Rome but hated by her husband, Claudia Octavia’s marriage to her stepbrother Nero was surely an unhappy one. The younger daughter of the former emperor Claudius was Nero’s first wife when an affair with his mistress Poppaea Sabina resulted in pregnancy. Divorcing Octavia, Nero had her banished to the island of Pandateria on the false pretence that she had committed ‘adultery’. The People of Rome demanded her return, but she was soon after executed on the orders of Poppaea.