Lot Essay
According to Kleiner (I Claudia, Women in Ancient Rome, p. 59-60), during the reign of Tiberius, idealized images of his elderly mother Livia often "share the ageless youth and extraordinary beauty of the gods themselves." Compare her portrait in the guise of Pietas (piety) on a bronze dupondius minted in A.D. 22-23, no. 10 in Kleiner and Matheson, eds., I Claudia, Women in Ancient Rome.