157, Lot: 320. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1366. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nero. AD 54-68. AV Aureus (22mm, 6.98 g). Rome mint. Struck AD 66-67. Laureate head right / Jupiter seated left, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. RIC I 63. Fine, a few minor scratches.

This reverse type commemorates the protection of Nero from the revolt of Corbulo. The years 64-65 were those in which events defined the subsequent reputation of Nero as a cruel and self-indulgent ruler. In 64, a large section of central Rome burned; Nero's reputed singing of the destruction of Troy during the fire led to the later association of him "fiddling." Out of the charmed remains of the city's near center, Nero constructed the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, so named because of the guilt tiles on its exterior. Covering the area east of the Forum and up the Esquiline, it included a man-made lake and a large guilt statue of himself. Vespasian later constructed an amphitheater and the nearby colossus of Nero would lend its name to the new structure. Nero's "excesses" led to a conspiracy in 65 to overthrow him; thus the IVPPITER CVSTOS reverse signaled its successful defeat. The re-issuance of this reverse may reflect a possible coup around Cn. Domitius Corbulo, Nero's most successful general whom the emperor compelled to commit suicide, or the the revolts of Clodius Macer and Vindex. Jupiter's protection was short-lived, however; Nero, bereft of human support, committed suicide on June 9, AD 68.