Lot 187
Nero Claudius Drusus. Gold Aureus (7.82 g), died 9 BC. Lugdunum, under Claudius, AD 41/2. NERO CLAVDIVS DRVSVS GERMANICVS IMP, laureate head of Nero Claudius Drusus left. Reverse: DE / GERM above and on architrave, triumphal arch surmounted by equestrian statue between two trophies. RIC 69; BN 95; BMC 95; CNR 2/3 (this coin); Calicó 315. NGC grade Ch XF; Strike: 5/5, Surface: 4/5. Value $20,000 - UP
Nero Claudius Drusus was the son of Livia and the senator Tiberius Claudius Nero. Before he was born his parents divorced so that Augustus could marry his mother. Unlike his older brother, the future emperor Tiberius whom Augustus disliked, the emperor doted on his younger stepson. In 13 BC Drusus was sent to govern Gaul, and while there he repelled an attack by a tribe of Germans who had invaded the province. Most of the following years until his death were spent on campaigns in German territory. First, he crossed the Rhine frontier and penetrated as far as the North Sea, subduing the Frisii. The following years saw him engaged against various confederations of the Chatti, Sicambri and Marcomanni. He died tragically in 9 BC from injuries he sustained when he fell from his horse while on campaign fighting the Marcomanni.The Arch of Drusus that appears on the reverse of this coin and which commemorated his campaigns in Germania has not survived. Its precise location is not known, but it was on the Appian way.
Ex Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection, pt. IV (Sotheby's, New York, 20 June 1991), 686; Ex J. H. Barnes Collection (Sotheby's, London, 26 June 1974), 5.
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