(108) Commodus - AV aureus, A.D. 177-182, 7.08 g. (inv. 91.189).
Obverse: Draped bust of Crispina r.; CRISPINA AVGVSTA: Crispina Augusta.
Reverse: Pudicitia standing l., veiled with r. holding veil in front of
face: PVDICITIA: Pudicitia.
Provenance: Abner Kreisberg, 1976.
Bibliography: H. Mattingly and E.A. Sydenham, The Roman Imperial Coinage
III: Antoninus Pius to Commodus (London 1930) 285.
Bruttia Crispina was the daughter of a consul under Antoninus Pius.
She married Commodus in A.D. 177 and was given the title Augusta. To judge
from her coin portraits she was beautiful. She was accused of adultery,
exiled to Capri, and executed. Lucilla, the sister of Commodus, met the
same fate when she was accused of plotting against him.
Little else is known of Crispina's life. The reverses of her coins depict
the usual goddesses and personifications appropriate to the empress and
to the celebration of the imperial marriage. On this coin Pudicitia, the
personification of chastity and modesty, is characterized by the veil she
pulls across her face. The portrait on the obverse depicts a beautiful young
woman wearing her hair braided around the face and backward into a bun.
K.L.M.
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