LUCIUS VERUS 164AD Rome Ancient Denarius Silver Roman Coin MARS NGC Ch VF i59831

Item: i59831 Authentic Ancient Coin of. Lucius Verus - Roman Emperor: 161-169 A. Silver Denarius 17mm (3.2 grams) Rome mint: 164 A. Reference: RIC 514 (Marcus Aurelius), C 228 Certification: NGC Ancients Ch VF 4375823-229 L VERVS AVG ARMENIACVS, Laureate, cuirassed bust right.

TR P IIII IMP II COS II, Mars standing right, holding spear and resting hand on shield. Mars was the Roman god of war , the son of Juno and Jupiter , husband of Bellona , and the lover of Venus.

He was the most prominent of the military gods that were worshipped by the Roman legions. The martial Romans considered him second in importance only to Jupiter (their main god). His festivals were held in March (named for him) and October. As the word Mars has no Indo-European derivation, it is most likely the Latinised form of the agricultural Etruscan god Maris. Initially Mars was a Roman god of fertility and vegetation and a protector of cattle, fields and boundaries and farmers.

In the second century BC, the conservative Cato the Elder advised "For your cattle, for them to be healthy, make this sacrifice to Mars Silvanus you must make this sacrifice each year". Mars later became associated with battle as the growing Roman Empire began to expand, and he came to be identified with the Greek god Ares. Unlike his Greek counterpart, Mars was generally revered and rivaled Jupiter as the most honoured god. He was also the tutelary god of the city of Rome.

As he was regarded as the legendary father of Rome's founder, Romulus , it was believed that all Romans were descendants of Mars. Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 169), born as Lucius Ceionius Commodus , known simply as Lucius Verus , was Roman co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius (161180), from 161 until his death.

Verus was the son of Avidia Plautia and Lucius Aelius Caesar , the adopted son, and intended successor, of Emperor Hadrian (117138). When Aelius Caesar died in 138, Hadrian chose Antoninus Pius (138161) as his successor, on the condition that Antoninus adopt both Verus (then seven years old) and Marcus Aurelius , Hadrian's nephew. As an imperial prince, Verus received careful education from the most famous grammaticus Marcus Cornelius Fronto.

Verus is reported to have been an excellent student, fond of writing poetry and delivering speeches. One sister Ceionia Fabia was engaged to Marcus Aurelius in 136. However Marcus Aurelius in 138, broke off the engagement to Fabia.

Aurelius was adopted by emperor Antoninus Pius and was engaged to Antoninus daughter Faustina the Younger whom he later married. Lucius had another sister Ceionia Plautia, but little is known about the sisters. Verus' political career started as quaestor in 153 and then as consul in 154. In 161, he was once again consul, with Marcus Aurelius as senior partner. Accession of Lucius and Marcus, 161. Antoninus died on 7 March 161, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius. Although Marcus had no personal affection for Hadrian (significantly, he does not thank him in the first book of his Meditations), he presumably believed it his duty to enact the man's succession plans. Thus, although the senate planned to confirm Marcus alone, he refused to take office unless Lucius received equal powers. The senate accepted, granting Lucius the imperium , the tribunician power, and the name Augustus. Marcus became, in official titulature, Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; Lucius, forgoing his name Commodus and taking Marcus' family name, Verus, became Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus. It was the first time that Rome was ruled by two emperors. In spite of their nominal equality, Marcus held more auctoritas , or "authority", than Verus. He had been consul once more than Lucius, he had shared in Pius' administration, and he alone was Pontifex Maximus. It would have been clear to the public which emperor was the more senior. Castra Praetoria , the camp of the praetorian guard. Lucius addressed the assembled troops, which then acclaimed the pair as imperatores. Then, like every new emperor since Claudius, Lucius promised the troops a special donative. This donative, however, was twice the size of those past: 20,000 sesterces (5,000 denarii) per capita, more to officers. In return for this bounty, equivalent to several years' pay, the troops swore an oath to protect the emperors. Pius' funeral ceremonies were, in the words of the biographer, "elaborate". If his funeral followed the pattern of past funerals, his body would have been incinerated on a pyre at the Campus Martius , while his spirit would rise to the gods' home in the heavens. Marcus and Lucius nominated their father for deification.

In contrast to their behavior during Pius' campaign to deify Hadrian, the senate did not oppose the emperors' wishes. A flamen , or cultic priest, was appointed to minister the cult of the deified Pius, now Divus Antoninus.

Pius' remains were laid to rest in the Hadrian's mausoleum, beside the remains of Marcus' children and of Hadrian himself. The temple he had dedicated to his wife, Diva Faustina, became the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. It survives as the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda. Soon after the emperors' accession, Marcus' eleven-year-old daughter, Annia Lucilla, was betrothed to Lucius (in spite of the fact that he was, formally, her uncle).

At the ceremonies commemorating the event, new provisions were made for the support of poor children, along the lines of earlier imperial foundations. Marcus and Lucius proved popular with the people of Rome, who strongly approved of their civiliter ("lacking pomp") behavior.

The emperors permitted free speech, evinced by the fact that the comedy writer Marullus was able to criticize them without suffering retribution. At any other time, under any other emperor, he would have been executed. But it was a peaceful time, a forgiving time.

And thus, as the biographer wrote, No one missed the lenient ways of Pius. He sent a note to the imperial freedman Charilas, asking if he could call on the emperors. Fronto would later explain that he had not dared to write the emperors directly.

The tutor was immensely proud of his students. Reflecting on the speech he had written on taking his consulship in 143, when he had praised the young Marcus, Fronto was ebullient: There was then an outstanding natural ability in you; there is now perfected excellence. There was then a crop of growing corn; there is now a ripe, gathered harvest.

What I was hoping for then, I have now. The hope has become a reality. Fronto called on Marcus alone; neither thought to invite Lucius. Lucius was less esteemed by his tutor than his brother, as his interests were on a lower level. Lucius asked Fronto to adjudicate in a dispute he and his friend Calpurnius were having on the relative merits of two actors. Marcus told Fronto of his reading Coelius and a little Ciceroand his family.

His daughters were in Rome, with their great-great-aunt Matilda; Marcus thought the evening air of the country was too cold for them. The emperors' early reign proceeded smoothly. Marcus was able to give himself wholly to philosophy and the pursuit of popular affection.

Some minor troubles cropped up in the spring; there would be more later. In the spring of 162, the Tiber flooded over its banks, destroying much of Rome. It drowned many animals, leaving the city in famine.

Marcus and Lucius gave the crisis their personal attention. In other times of famine, the emperors are said to have provided for the Italian communities out of the Roman granaries. For details, see: RomanParthian War of 16166. Origins to Lucius' dispatch, 16162.

Vologases IV of Parthia , made his move in late summer or early autumn 161. Vologases entered the Kingdom of Armenia (then a Roman client state), expelled its king and installed his ownPacorus, an Arsacid like himself.

At the time of the invasion, the governor of Syria was L. Attidius had been retained as governor even though his term ended in 161, presumably to avoid giving the Parthians the chance to wrong-foot his replacement. The governor of Cappadocia, the front-line in all Armenian conflicts, was Marcus Sedatius Severianus, a Gaul with much experience in military matters. But living in the east had a deleterious effect on his character.

The confidence man Alexander of Abonutichus , a prophet who carried a snake named Glycon around with him, had enraptured Severianus, as he had many others. Father-in-law to the respected senator P. Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus, then-proconsul of Asia, Abonutichus was friends with many members of the east Roman elite.

Alexander convinced Severianus that he could defeat the Parthians easily, and win glory for himself. Severianus led a legion (perhaps the IX Hispana) into Armenia, but was trapped by the great Parthian general Chosrhoes at Elegia, a town just beyond the Cappadocian frontiers, high up past the headwaters of the Euphrates. Severianus made some attempt to fight Chosrhoes, but soon realized the futility of his campaign, and committed suicide. The campaign had only lasted three days.

There was threat of war on other frontiers as wellin Britain, and in Raetia and Upper Germany , where the Chatti of the Taunus mountains had recently crossed over the limes. Pius seems to have given him no military experience; the biographer writes that Marcus spent the whole of Pius' twenty-three-year reign at his emperor's sideand not in the provinces, where most previous emperors had spent their early careers. Marcus made the necessary appointments: Marcus Statius Priscus , the governor of Britain, was sent to replace Severianus as governor of Cappadocia.

Sextus Calpurnius Agricola would take Priscus' former office. More bad news arrived: Attidius Cornelianus' army had been defeated in battle against the Parthians, and retreated in disarray. Reinforcements were dispatched for the Parthian frontier. Julius Geminius Marcianus, an African senator commanding X Gemina at Vindobona (Vienna), left for Cappadocia with detachments from the Danubian legions. Three full legions were also sent east: I Minervia from Bonn in Upper Germany, II Adiutrix from Aquincum, and V Macedonica from Troesmis.

The norther frontiers were strategically weakened; frontier governors were told to avoid conflict wherever possible. Attidius Cornelianus himself was replaced by M.

Annius Libo, Marcus' first cousin. He was younghis first consulship was in 161, so he was probably in his early thirtiesand, as a mere patrician, lacked military experience. Marcus had chosen a reliable man rather than a talented one.

Marcus took a four-day public holiday at Alsium , a resort town on the Etrurian coast. He was too anxious to relax. Writing to Fronto, he declared that he would not speak about his holiday. Do I not know that you went to Alsium with the intention of devoting yourself to games, joking and complete leisure for four whole days? He encouraged Marcus to rest, calling on the example of his predecessors (Pius had enjoyed exercise in the palaestra , fishing, and comedy), going so far as to write up a fable about the gods' division of the day between morning and eveningMarcus had apparently been spending most of his evenings on judicial matters instead of at leisure. Marcus could not take Fronto's advice. Marcus put on Fronto's voice to chastise himself:'Much good has my advice done you', you will say! " He had rested, and would rest often, but "this devotion to duty!

Who knows better than you how demanding it is! Fronto sent Marcus a selection of reading material, including Cicero's pro lege Manilia , in which the orator had argued in favor of Pompey taking supreme command in the Mithridatic War. It was an apt reference (Pompey's war had taken him to Armenia), and may have had some impact on the decision to send Lucius to the eastern front. You will find in it many chapters aptly suited to your present counsels, concerning the choice of army commanders, the interests of allies, the protection of provinces, the discipline of the soldiers, the qualifications required for commanders in the field and elsewhere...

To settle his unease over the course of the Parthian war, Fronto wrote Marcus a long and considered letter, full of historical references. In modern editions of Fronto's works, it is labeled De bello Parthico (On the Parthian War).

There had been reverses in Rome's past, Fronto writes, at Allia , at Caudium , at Cannae , at Numantia , Cirta , and Carrhae ; under Trajan, Hadrian, and Pius; but, in the end, Romans had always prevailed over their enemies: "always and everywhere [Mars] has changed our troubles into successes and our terrors into triumphs". Lucius' dispatch and journey east, 16263? Furius Victorinus, one of the two praetorian prefects, was sent with Lucius, as were a pair of senators, M. Pontius Laelianus Larcius Sabinus and M.

Iallius Bassus, and part of the praetorian guard. Victorinus had previously served as procurator of Galatia, giving him some experience with eastern affairs. Moreover, he was far more qualified than his praetorian partner, Cornelius Repentinus , who was said to owe his office to the influence of Pius' mistress Galeria Lysistrate. Repentius had the rank of a senator, but no real access to senatorial circleshis was merely a decorative title. Since a prefect had to accompany the guard, Victorinus was the clear choice. Laelianus had been governor of both Pannonias and governor of Syria in 153; he hence had first-hand knowledge of the eastern army and military strategy on the frontiers. He was made comes Augustorum ("companion of the emperors") for his service. Laelianus was, in the words of Fronto, "a serious man and an old-fashioned disciplinarian". Bassus had been governor of Lower Moesia, and was also made comes. The fleet of Misenum was charged with transporting the emperor and general communications and transport. Verus continued eastward via a Corinth and Athens , accompanied by musicians and singers as if in a royal progress. At Athens he stayed with Herodes Atticus, and joined the Eleusinian Mysteries. During sacrifice, a falling star was observed in the sky, shooting west to east. He stopped in Ephesus , where he is attested at the estate of the local aristocrat Vedius Antoninus, and made an unexpected stopover at Erythrae. It is not known how long Verus' journey east took; he might not have arrived in Antioch until after 162. Statius Priscus, meanwhile, must have already arrived in Cappadocia; he would earn fame in 163 for successful generalship. Luxury, dissolution, and logistics at Antioch, 162? Antioch from the southwest engraving by William Miller after a drawing by H. Warren from a sketch by Captain Byam Martin , R. Lucius spent most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at Laodicea and summered at Daphne , a resort just outside Antioch. He took up a mistress named Panthea, from Smyrna. The biographer calls her a "low-born girl-friend", but she is probably closer to Lucian's "woman of perfect beauty", more beautiful than any of Phidias and Praxiteles' statues.

Polite, caring, humble, she sang to the lyre perfectly and spoke clear Ionic Greek , spiced with Attic wit. Panthea read Lucian's first draft, and criticized him for flattery. He had compared her to a goddess, which frightened hershe did not want to become the next Cassiopeia.

She made Lucius shave his beard for her. The Syrians mocked him for this, as they did for much else.

Critics declaimed Lucius' luxurious lifestyle. He had taken to gambling, they said; he would "dice the whole night through". He enjoyed the company of actors.

He made a special request for dispatches from Rome, to keep him updated on how his chariot teams were doing. He brought a golden statue of the Greens' horse Volucer around with him, as a token of his team spirit.

Fronto defended his pupil against some of these claims: the Roman people needed Lucius' bread and circuses to keep them in check. This, at least, is how the biographer has it. The whole section of the vita dealing with Lucius' debaucheries (HA Verus 4.46.6) is an insertion into a narrative otherwise entirely cribbed from an earlier source. Some few passages seem genuine; others take and elaborate something from the original.

The rest is by the biographer himself, relying on nothing better than his own imagination. Lucius faced quite a task. Fronto described the scene in terms recalling Corbulo's arrival one hundred years before.

The Syrian army had turned soft during the east's long peace. They spent more time at the city's open-air cafés than in their quarters. Under Lucius, training was stepped up. Pontius Laelianus ordered that their saddles be stripped of their padding.

Gambling and drinking were sternly policed. Fronto wrote that Lucius was on foot at the head of his army as often as on horseback. He personally inspected soldiers in the field and at camp, including the sick bay. Lucius sent Fronto few messages at the beginning of the war.

He sent Fronto a letter apologizing for his silence. He would not detail plans that could change within a day, he wrote.

Moreover, there was little thus far to show for his work: "not even yet has anything been accomplished such as to make me wish to invite you to share in the joy". Lucius did not want Fronto to suffer the anxieties that had kept him up day and night.

One reason for Lucius' reticence may have been the collapse of Parthian negotiations after the Roman conquest of Armenia. Lucius' presentation of terms was seen as cowardice. The Parthians were not in the mood for peace.

Lucius needed to make extensive imports into Antioch, so he opened a sailing route up the Orontes. Because the river breaks across a cliff before reaching the city, Lucius ordered that a new canal be dug. After the project was completed, the Orontes' old riverbed dried up, exposing massive bonesthe bones of a giant. Pausanias says they were from a beast "more than eleven cubits" tall; Philostratus says the it was "thirty cubits" tall.

The oracle at Claros declared that they were the bones of the river's spirit. In the middle of the war, perhaps in autumn 163 or early 164, Lucius made a trip to Ephesus to be married to Marcus' daughter Lucilla. Lucilla's thirteenth birthday was in March 163; whatever the date of her marriage, she was not yet fifteen. Marcus had moved up the date: perhaps stories of Panthea had disturbed him. Lucilla was accompanied by her mother Faustina and M.

Vettulenus Civica Barbarus, the half-brother of Lucius' father. Marcus may have planned to accompany them all the way to Smyrna (the biographer says he told the senate he would); this did not happen. Lucilla would bear three of Lucius' children in the coming years.

I Minervia and V Macedonica, under the legates M. Martius Verus, served under Statius Priscus in Armenia, earning success for Roman arms during the campaign season of 163, including the capture of the Armenian capital Artaxata. At the end of the year, Verus took the title Armeniacus , despite having never seen combat; Marcus declined to accept the title until the following year. When Lucius was hailed as imperator again, however, Marcus did not hesitate to take the Imperator II with him. The army of Syria was reinforced by II Adiutrix and Danubian legions under X Gemina's legate Geminius Marcianus.

Occupied Armenia was reconstructed on Roman terms. In 164, a new capital, Kaine Polis ('New City'), replaced Artaxata. On Birley's reckoning, it was thirty miles closer to the Roman border. Detachments from Cappadocian legions are attested at Echmiadzin , beneath the southern face of Mount Ararat , 400 km east of Satala. It would have meant a march of twenty days or more, through mountainous terrain, from the Roman border; a "remarkable example of imperialism", in the words of Fergus Millar.

A new king was installed: a Roman senator of consular rank and Arsacid descent, C. He may not even have been crowned in Armenia; the ceremony may have taken place in Antioch, or even Ephesus. Sohaemus was hailed on the imperial coinage of 164 under the legend. Verus sat on a throne with his staff while Sohamenus stood before him, saluting the emperor. In 163, while Statius Priscus was occupied in Armenia, the Parthians intervened in Osroene , a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia, just east of Syria, with its capital at Edessa.

They deposed the country's leader, Mannus, and replaced him with their own nominee, who would remain in office until 165. The Edessene coinage record actually begins at this point, with issues showing Vologases IV on the obverse and "Wael the king" (Syriac : W'L MLK') on the reverse. In response, Roman forces were moved downstream, to cross the Euphrates at a more southerly point. On the evidence of Lucian, the Parthians still held the southern, Roman bank of the Euphrates (in Syria) as late as 163 (he refers to a battle at Sura, which is on the southern side of the river). Before the end of the year, however, Roman forces had moved north to occupy Dausara and Nicephorium on the northern, Parthian bank.

Soon after the conquest of the north bank of the Euphrates, other Roman forces moved on Osroene from Armenia, taking Anthemusia, a town south-west of Edessa. There was little movement in 164; most of the year was spent on preparations for a renewed assault on Parthian territory.

In 165, Roman forces, perhaps led by Martius Verus and the V Macedonica, moved on Mesopotamia. Edessa was re-occupied, Mannus re-installed.

His coinage resumed, too:'Ma'nu the king' (Syriac: M'NW MLK') or Antonine dynasts on the obverse, and'King Mannos, friend of Romans' (Greek: Basileus Mannos Philormaios) on the reverse. The Parthians retreated to Nisibis, but this too was besieged and captured. The Parthian army dispersed in the Tigris; their general Chosrhoes swam down the river and made his hideout in a cave. A second force, under Avidius Cassius and the III Gallica, moved down the Euphrates, and fought a major battle at Dura.

By the end of the year, Cassius' army had reached the twin metropolises of Mesopotamia: Seleucia on the right bank of the Tigris and Ctesiphon on the left. Ctesiphon was taken and its royal palace set to flame. The citizens of Seleucia, still largely Greek (the city had been commissioned and settled as a capital of the Seleucid empire , one of Alexander the Great's successor kingdoms), opened its gates to the invaders. The city got sacked nonetheless, leaving a black mark on Lucius' reputation. Excuses were sought, or invented: the official version had it that the Seleucids broke faith first.

Whatever the case, the sacking marks a particularly destructive chapter in Seleucia's long decline. Cassius' army, although suffering from a shortage of supplies and the effects of a plague contracted in Seleucia, made it back to Roman territory safely.

Iunius Maximus, a young tribunus laticlavius serving in III Gallica under Cassius, took the news of the victory to Rome. Maximus received a generous cash bounty (dona) for bringing the good news, and immediate promotion to the quaestorship. Lucius took the title Parthicus Maximus, and he and Marcus were hailed as imperatores again, earning the title'imp. Lucius took the title'Medicus', and the emperors were again hailed as imperatores , becoming'imp. Marcus took the Parthicus Maximus now, after another tactful delay. Most of the credit for the war's success must be ascribed to subordinate generals. The forces that advanced on Osroene were led by M. Claudius Fronto, an Asian provincial of Greek descent who had led I Minervia in Armenia under Priscus. He was probably the first senator in his family. Fronto was consul for 165, probably in honor of the capture of Edessa. Martius Verus had led V Macedonica to the front, and also served under Priscus. Martius Verus was a westerner, whose patria was perhaps Tolosa in Gallia Narbonensis. The most prominent general, however, was C. Avidius Cassius , commander of III Gallica, one of the Syrian legions.

Cassius was young senator of low birth from the north Syrian town of Cyrrhus. His father, Heliodorus, had not been a senator, but was nonetheless a man of some standing: he had been Hadrian's ab epistulis , followed the emperor on his travels, and was prefect of Egypt at the end of Hadrian's reign. Cassius also, with no small sense of self-worth, claimed descent from the Seleucid kings.

Cassius and Martius Verus, still probably in their mid-thirties, took the consulships for 166. Vologases IV of Parthia (147191) made peace but was forced to cede western Mesopotamia to the Romans. Lucius is reported to have been an excellent commander, without fear of delegating military tasks to more competent generals.

On his return to Rome, Lucius was awarded with a triumph. The parade was unusual because it included Lucius, Marcus Aurelius, their sons and unmarried daughters as a big family celebration.

Marcus Aurelius' two sons, Commodus five years old and Annius Verus of three, were elevated to the status of Caesar for the occasion. The next two years (166168) were spent in Rome. Verus continued with his glamorous lifestyle and kept the troupe of actors and favourites with him. He had a tavern built in his house, where he celebrated parties with his friends until dawn. He also enjoyed roaming around the city among the population, without acknowledging his identity. The games of the circus were another passion in his life, especially chariot racing. Marcus Aurelius disapproved of his conduct but, since Verus continued to perform his official tasks with efficiency, there was little he could do. Portrait head of Lucius Verus, found in Athens (National Archaeological Museum of Athens) He used to sprinkle gold-dust on his blond hair to make it brighter.

Wars on the Danube and death. In the spring of 168 war broke out in the Danubian border when the Marcomanni invaded the Roman territory. This war would last until 180, but Verus did not see the end of it. However, scholars believe that Verus may have been a victim of smallpox , as he died during a widespread epidemic known as the Antonine Plague.

Despite the minor differences between them, Marcus Aurelius grieved the loss of his adoptive brother. He accompanied the body to Rome, where he offered games to honour his memory. After the funeral, the senate declared Verus divine to be worshipped as Divus Verus. Ilya Zlobin, world-renowned expert numismatist, enthusiast, author and dealer in authentic ancient Greek, ancient Roman, ancient Byzantine, world coins & more. Ilya Zlobin is an independent individual who has a passion for coin collecting, research and understanding the importance of the historical context and significance all coins and objects represent. Send me a message about this and I can update your invoice should you want this method. Getting your order to you, quickly and securely is a top priority and is taken seriously here.

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Ruler: Lucius Verus
Certification: NGC
Composition: Silver
Material: Silver
Coin Type: Ancient Roman
Grade: Ch VF
Certification Number: 4375823-229
Denomination: Denarius
Culture: Roman
Type: Denarius