Lot 4402

AR Denarius (Rome AD 192, 2.14 g) - Head right, wearing lion's skin headdress / HERCVLI ROMANO AVG Bow, club and quiver with arrows (RIC 253 / RSC 195) - a.XF, minor porosity but nice grading for type. During the latter part of his reign, Commodus began associating himself with Hercules. While the Antonine emperors had traditionally associated themselves with the divine hero, Commodus appropriated the iconography more aggressively by wearing a lion skin and carrying a club, both main attributes of Hercules, and having statues of himself dressed as the god erected throughout the empire.