Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Nero silver tetradrachm (coin)
Nero silver tetradrachm (coin)

Nero silver tetradrachm (coin)

MediumSilver
DimensionsWeight: 14.3 grams, Die Axis: 12:00
CultureRoman
ClassificationsMetalwork
Credit LineGift of Robert E. Ostrander, Class of 1952, and Margaret Servello Ostrander
Terms
  • Metalwork
  • Silver
  • Laurel wreaths
  • Eagles
  • Birds
  • Palm fronds
  • Roman
Object number2002.021.025
Label CopyThis coin was minted in the city of Antioch (modern-day Syria), where coins had been minted since the reign of the Seleucid kings (312–64 BCE). The Romans did not make significant use of this eastern mint until Nero started issuing these tetradrachms with an eagle clutching a bundle of thunderbolts. Eagles were revered in Greco-Roman society. Thought to be the armor-bearers of the supreme god Jupiter, eagles were supposedly the only birds immune to lightning strikes. Pliny also describes the eagle as “the most noble, and the most remarkable for its strength” among all other birds (10.3). The Great Seal of the United States that appears on US dollar bill echoes this image—with arrows instead of thunderbolts.

(Olivia Graves, PhD student, “Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder,” exhibition organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Verity J. Platt, presented at the Johnson Museum January 21–June 11, 2023)
Collections