This coin pictures Nero on one side and his Jewish wife Poppaea on the other. The letters LIA mean year 11 of Nero, or 64 A.D. This is the same year that Rome burned and that Christians came under severe persecution, traditionally martyring Peter and Paul in Rome. After only three years of marriage, Poppaea died the next year, the victim of Nero who kicked her in a fit of temper.

This coin was minted in Alexandria, Egypt, in the copper-silver alloy known as billon.
[SGI 664]

"The coronation of Poppea", is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), written in 1642.

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