Faustine II Aureus - Rome (138-161) D’une qualité exceptionnelle et d’un style d’une extrême finesse. Exemplaire de la collection A.D. Moretti vente Numismatic Fine Arts XXVII des 4 et 5 décembre 1991, N°136 et de la collection « Athena Fund » vente Sotheby’s (Zurich) du 26 octobre 1993, N°98 Exemplaire illustrant le Calicó et le A. Pangerl (ed.), PORTRAITS. 500 Years of Roman Coin Portraits, Munich 2017, p. 99, N°250 7.18g - Cal. 2094 (cet exemplaire) FDC Exceptionnel - CHOICE MS Venus, who symbolised tenderness, faithfulness and fertility, was an appropriate type for a young married empress, and the rudder also associates her to Fortuna – guiding the Empire towards prosperity. She may be Venus Caelestis holding a globe – a Roman adaptation from the ‘Syrian Goddess’, Aphrodite Urania, a warlike Semitic deity, but she may also be Venus Genetrix, the protectress of Julius Caesar who is depicted holding an apple, the fruit being one more symbol of fertility. Venus, as goddess of love and beauty, was also especially appropriate for Faustina the Younger (born c. 130), who bore some thirteen children to her husband between AD 147 and AD 170, and this coin suggests that she was one of the great beauties of her age.