Domitia- rare Empress (AP2551)

ASIA MINOR, Uncertain. Domitia. Augusta, AD 82-96. AR Cistophorus (26mm, 10.67 g, 5h). Struck under Domitian, AD 82. DOMITIA AVGVSTA, draped bust right, hair in long braids with single looped plait at back / VENVS AVG, Venus Victrix, seen half from behind, naked to the hips and draped below the waist, standing right, resting left elbow on column, holding scepter in left hand and helmet in right. RPC II 870; RSC 19; SNG von Aulock 659. Fine. From the collection of Martinus J. L. Janssen and from the Jeroen van der Meulen Collection

Domitia Longina was the daughter of the famous Roman general Corbulo, and the mistress of Domitian before the two were married in AD 71. A boy was born to the couple, but died very young and was deified upon Domitian's accession as emperor in AD 81. Domitia was acclaimed as Augusta shortly thereafter, but the marriage was a tempestuous one and she was exiled from the palace for a time in AD 83. By the following year she had returned, and the couple seems to have arrived at a modus vivendi for the rest of Domitian's reign. The historian Cassius Dio claims Domitia had a role in her husband's assassination in September of AD 96. However, she continued to refer to herself as "Domitia, wife of Domitian" for the rest of her long life. She died peacefully sometime between AD 126 and 130.