Wadih Hadad Collection (Beirut), bought from Heritage Auctions, Auction 3048, lot 32072
2017-05-17
Smyrna (Ionia). Coin-Medallion issued under the strategos Marcus Antonius Polemo commemorating the emperor Hadrian’s favorite Antinous as divinized (Hero). The later drowned in the Nile, either by accident, sacrificial rite by Hadrian or sacrificial suicide in order to preserve the emperor’s health. Hadrian deified him and founded at city (Antinoopolis) at the drowning place. Antinous was considered as the personation of male beauty and his cult was popular in the East, particularly in Bithynia and Egypt.