Gold aureus commemorating the consecration of the Emperor
Hadrian
From Rome, Italy
AD 138
This gold coin was issued by Antoninus Pius,
the successor of the emperor Hadrian, to celebrate his
predecessor’s deification.
Hadrian died at Baiae on the Gulf of Naples on
10 July AD 138 after a long illness. Hadrian's successor requested
that the reluctant senate overcome their hostility to the
deceased emperor and deify him.
Deification was an elaborate public ritual. A
wax image of the deceased was laid in state in the Forum and
praised by his successor. Accompanied by a large procession of
public representatives from across the empire, the effigy was then
taken to a cremation site. The wax image, gifts and offerings were
placed on a massive, multi-story funerary pyre, often decorated
with sculptures and precious ornaments. An eagle – concealed in a
cage on top of the pyre – was released just before the effigy was
consumed by flames, symbolising the soul soaring to heaven to join
the gods. No references to Hadrian’s consecration ceremony have
survived, but it must have followed the usual ritual.
On the obverse of this coin, Hadrian is shown
with a laurel wreath and the portrait is inscribed ‘Divus Hadrianus
Aug’ (Deified Hadrianus Augustus). On the reverse, Hadrian is
carried up to the heavens by a mighty eagle. This side bears the
legend ‘consecratio’, the term used by the Romans for the
deification of members of the imperial family.