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AR24 - Commodus L ΛΒ
| Issuer | Alexandria (Egypt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 191-192 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | Λ ΑΙΛ ΑΥΡ ΚΟΜ ϹΕ ΕΥϹΕ ΕΥΤΥ |
| Reverse description | Draped bust of Sarapis facing right, wearing the characteristic kalathos (modius) atop his head, the cylindrical crown that is the god's principal attribute. The hair and beard are rendered in thick, wavy locks falling in voluminous pellet-form curls, consistent with Alexandrian artistic conventions for depictions of this syncretistic deity. The date formula occupies the field, with the regnal year expressed in Greek numerals: L (year symbol) to the left and ΛΒ (year 32) to the right of the bust. The drapery is visible at the base of the bust, indicating a formal divine portrait type standard on Alexandrian provincial coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Regnal year 32 of Commodus — the year this tetradrachm was struck — fell just months before his assassination on the last day of 192 AD, when a conspiracy involving his mistress Marcia, the Praetorian prefect Laetus, and the chamberlain Eclectus ended his rule by strangulation. The Alexandrian mint continued producing into that final year without interruption, indifferent to the political collapse unfolding in Rome.
The Senate's subsequent damnatio memoriae decree ordered Commodus's name erased from public monuments, making dated Egyptian issues from L ΛΒ an inadvertent record of a reign the Roman state officially tried to expunge.