Antinous

photo credit Numismatica Ars Classica

Sabina didn’t much please emperor Hadrian. Theirs was a strained marriage, bound only by convenience: she was the grand-niece of the emperor’s predecessor Trajan. So much did Hadrian dislike Sabina that, according to the Historia Augusta, if Hadrian were a private citizen, he would have divorced her “on the ground of ill-temper and irritability”. However unreliable this source, these were the stories passed around centuries later. After Sabina’s death in about 136 AD, rumour even arose that the emperor had poisoned her; Hadrian had questionably put to death four political rivals just after succeeding to the throne, after all.

No, Hadrian was much more interested in a youth from Bithynia, a distant Roman province in modern-day northern Turkey famed for its mountains and forests. His name was Antinous. Little is known of how they met, but Antinous soon accompanied Hadrian on his extensive travels around the empire. Tragically, in 130 AD, Antinous - likely not even 20 years old - fell in the river Nile and died. The circumstances were mysterious, and possibilities as varied as accident, voluntary sacrifice, suicide, murder by Hadrian, and murder by others have been proposed. Whatever the reason, it is certain that Hadrian’s grief for his lost lover was immeasurable: Antinous was deified immediately, and in his honour the emperor founded the city of Antinoöpolis in Egypt and established a cult. Many masterfully engraved statues depicting Antinous survive, and not all from antiquity; veneration of this symbol of male homosexuality continues even today.

Antinous receives remarkable attention numismatically, especially considering that he was not a member of the imperial family. While coinage struck at Rome was far too conservative to feature the emperor’s male lover, Hadrian allowed cities throughout the empire to strike coins featuring Antinous just after his death. These issues are varied: they come from many provinces, represent Antinous as gods like Hermes, Dionysos and Apollo and refer to the youth as a “god” or “hero” (perhaps with a sly pun on eros/sexual love). Most curiously, many extant coins featuring Antinous are worn and altered; transcending the function of money, they might have been commemorative cult souvenirs.

The above coin might be the most attractive extant medallion featuring Antinous, and bidders noticed this: it fetched a cool 425,000 CHF hammer at auction in 2014. It was minted in the youth’s hometown of Bithynium-Claudiopolis, which it refers to as the “fatherland of the gods”, and features an elegant portrait of Antinous with his distinctive curly hair. The reverse depicts the youth in the guise of Hermes Nomios, the divine protector of the herd, a reminder that Antinous would similarly defend those who honoured him. So Hadrian loved Antinous, and was distraught after his death, but such coins reveal he wasn’t alone: the empire grieved with the emperor, and preserved his lover’s memory for millennia.