CRISPINA wife of COMMODUS 177AD Philippopolis Thrace Zeus Roman Coin i49838

Item: i49838

 Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Crispina
–
Roman Empress
: 177-183 A.D. – wife of
Commodus

Bronze 21mm (4.93 grams) of

Thrace

Reference: BMC Thrace 23; SNG Copenhagen -; Varbanov 1069
KPICΠЄINA CЄBACTH,
Draped bust right.
ΦIΛIΠΠΟΠΟΛEΙΤΩΝ, Zeus seated left, holding
patera, and sceptre.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In the
ancient Greek

religion, Zeus was the
“Father of Gods and men” (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν
τε)
who ruled the Olympians of
Mount Olympus

as a father ruled the family. He was the
god of sky

and
thunder

in
Greek mythology
.
His
Roman

counterpart is
Jupiter

and
Etruscan

counterpart is Tinia
.

Zeus was the child of
Cronus

and
Rhea
,
and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to

Hera, although, at the
oracle of Dodona
,
his consort was
Dione
:
according to the Iliad
,
he is the father of
Aphrodite

by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and
heroic offspring, including
Athena
,
Apollo

and Artemis
,
Hermes
,
Persephone

(by Demeter
),
Dionysus
,
Perseus
,
Heracles
,
Helen of Troy
,
Minos
,
and the Muses

(by Mnemosyne
);
by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered

Ares,
Hebe

and Hephaestus
.

As
Walter Burkert

points out in his book, Greek Religion, “Even the gods who are not his
natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence.”
For the Greeks, he was the
King of the Gods
,
who oversaw the universe. As
Pausanias

observed, “That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men”. In
Hesiod’s Theogony

Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is
referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the
thunderbolt
,
eagle
,
bull
,
and oak
.
In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer”
also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East
,
such as the
scepter
.
Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing,
striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated
in majesty.

Crispina
Augusta: 177-182/3 A.D.
Wife of Commodus
Daughter-in-Law of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior

Bruttia Crispina (164-183 A.D.) was the
Empress of Rome
and wife of
Roman Emperor

Commodus
.

Crispina’s mother is unknown and her father was twice consul
Gaius Bruttius Praesens
. Crispina’s paternal
grandparents were consul and senator
Caius Bruttius Praesens
and rich heiress
Laberia Hostilia Crispina
, who was the daughter
of another twice consul,
Manius Laberius Maximus
. Crispina’s brother was
future consul
Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus
. Her
father’s family originally came from Volceii,
Lucania
,
Italy
and were closely associated with the
Roman Emperors Trajan
,
Hadrian
,
Antoninus Pius
and
Marcus Aurelius
. Crispina was born and raised
in Rome
or Volceii.

Crispina married Commodus, in the summer of 178 (probably July). The actual
ceremony was modest but it was commemorated on coinage and largesse was
distributed to the people. An
epithalamium
for the occasion was composed
by the sophist
Julius Pollux
. Like many marriages of young
members of the upper orders, it was an arranged marriage: Crispina’s father and
Marcus Aurelius (Commodus’ father) had arranged for it to occur. Commodus
disliked Crispina, presumably due to her character – she was a beautiful woman,
but said to be vain and haughty. She received the title of
Augusta
.

On the basis of a misreading of
SHA Commodus
5.9 and Dio 73.4.6 her fall is
sometimes wrongly associated with the conspiracy of
Lucilla
in 181 or 182. Her name continues to
appear in inscriptions until as late as 191 (CIL 8.2366). Her eventual exile and
death may instead have been associated with the fall of
Marcus Aurelius Cleander
or her inability to
help Commodus ensure the dynastic succession.