Gold Aureus of Carinus, 4.52 g.

Gold Aureus of Carinus, 4.52 g.

Carinus

284 CE

Obverse: Laureate and cuirassed bust of Carinus facing right; IMP(ERATOR) CARINVS P(IVS) F(ELIX) AVG(VSTVS): Imperator Carinus, pious, fortunate Augustus.

Reverse: Nude Hercules standing facing right, leaning on club; VIRTVS AVG(VSTI): Virtus of the Augustus.

Style/Period: Roman Empire

Marcus Aurelius Carinus, son of the emperor Carus, was made Caesar shortly after his father's accession in 282 CE, at about the age of thirty-three. He was put in charge of the troops in the West while his father went to the East on a campaign against the Persians. In 283 CE he and his brother, Numerian, were elevated to the rank of Augustus, and shortly afterward their father was killed, reportedly struck by lightning. When Numerian was murdered on the way back from Persia in 284 CE, Carinus became sole emperor. Meanwhile, Diocletian had been proclaimed emperor by his troops, and he marched against Carinus. They met in a battle at Margus in Moesia, which was won by Carinus, but he was murdered on the battlefield by one of his men whose wife he had seduced.
The portrait of Carinus on the obverse of this aureus reverts to the standard military type of the third-century emperors, with very short hair and beard, but like the portraits of Postumus (see 91.227) and Probus (see 91.232), it also depicts an elaborate cuirass. The reverse, celebrating the Virtus of the emperor, depicts Hercules with his most common attributes, the club and lionskin. These refer to one of his twelve labors, in which he killed the lion that the goddess Juno had sent to destroy him.
-- Carol L. Lawton

Bibliography: P.H. Webb, The Roman Imperial Coinage V.2 (London 1933) 233.

Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Purchased from Abner Kreisberg, November 4, 1960.

91.233

Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890

Roman, Empire, cuirass, Cariuns, Hercules, club