Antinous, favourite of Hadrian. Medallion or 8 Assaria (Bronze, 38.54 mm, 37.98 g), Bithynia, Nicomedia, circa 134. HRΩC - ANTINOOC, Bare head right. Rev. H ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙC NIKO - MEΔEIA, Bull with crescent moon on flank standing right. SNG von Aulock 7102 = RPC 1093.4 (this coin). Blum, p. 45,1 = Waddington, Recueil Général, p. 522,45, and pl. 90,6. R. Pudill, Antinoos, pp. 26-30, M18. Typical brownish patina from an old collection context. Lovely portrait. Very Fine. Extremely Rare, possibly the finest recorded specimen.

From the Hans von Aulock Collection, published in his Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum (Berlin, 1957-1968). Ex Roma Numismatics 19, 26 Mars 2020, lot 662; Classical Numismatic Group, Triton VII, 12 June 2004, lot 723; Classical Numismatic Group, Triton IV, 5 December 2000, lot 358; Münzen und Medaillen (B) 52, 19-20 June 1975, lot 643.

Antinous was a Greek youth from Claudiopolis in Bithynia, renowned for his exceptional beauty. In AD 128 he joined Emperor Hadrian’s personal entourage during a journey through the Greek East of the Roman Empire, visiting the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Oracle of Delphi, and the principal cities and sanctuaries of Asia Minor and Egypt. In October 130, during the festival of Osiris, Antinous drowned under enigmatic circumstances. Hadrian was deeply shaken by his death and had him elevated to divine status, leading to his worship across both the Greek East and the Latin West. Against this background of mystery cults and ideas of death and rebirth, the reverse type depicting a bull marked on its flank with a crescent moon is most likely connected with the taurobolium, a rite involving the sacrifice of a bull. From the mid-second century AD onward, this ritual was practiced in association with the cult of the great Anatolian mother goddess Cybele, her consort Attis, and the Phrygian lunar god Mēn—divinities tied to Eastern concepts of mystery, renewal, and the afterlife.