Néron Drusus Aureus - Rome ou Lyon (41-45) Rarissime dans cette qualité. Un des plus beaux exemplaires connus. Exemplaire de la collection N. B. Hunt vente Sotheby’s (New-York) des 21 et 22 juin 1990, N°674 et de la collection A. L. Casden vente Leu 52 du 15 mai 1991, N°164 et de la collection « a Connoisseur of Portraiture » vente NAC 38 du 21 mars 2007, N°13 7.80g - Cal. 316 Pratiquement FDC - CHOICE AU * This coin was struck by Claudius, one of the three children of Drusus and Antonia. He was not just the adopted son of Octavian (Livia was already pregnant when he seduced her), and the grandson-by-marriage of Marc Antony, but also a capable general who was given command of the planned conquest of Germany in 12 BC – which he achieved over the next three years in four campaigns (his eldest son was named Germanicus to honour this). His relations with Augustus were strained by his political opin- ions: Suetonius indicates that he hoped for a restoration of the Republic, but anyway Drusus died in September 9 BC, following an equestrian accident a month previously (the fact that the arch presents an equestrian statue of Drusus could seem ironic!), and this coin was likely struck to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death, with a reverse type that celebrates his German campaign and depicts a now-lost triumphal arch which was erected over the Via Appia after his death, immediately to the north of the point where the Via Latina branched off.