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Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => Roman Coins Discussion Forum => Topic started by: Adrian W on July 27, 2020, 04:30:10 pm

Title: Sextus Pompey Denarius Pharos lighthouse Messana Crawford 511/4a
Post by: Adrian W on July 27, 2020, 04:30:10 pm
 Sextus Pompey. 40-39 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.72 g). Uncertain Sicilian mint. The Pharos of Messana surmounted by statue of Neptune standing right, with foot on prow, holding trident and rudder; in foreground, galley to left, with aquila on prow and scepter, trident, and grappling-iron in stern / The monster Scylla left, her torso of dogs and fishes, wielding a rudder as a club with both hands. Crawford 511/4a
Title: Re: Sextus Pompey Denarius Pharos lighthouse Messana Crawford 511/4a
Post by: Meepzorp on July 27, 2020, 05:18:23 pm
Hi AW,

Nice coin! :)

Your reverse photo is upside down.

Here is my example (last coin):

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/meepzorp/rr_pt42.htm

Meepzorp
Title: Re: Sextus Pompey Denarius Pharos lighthouse Messana Crawford 511/4a
Post by: Adrian W on July 27, 2020, 06:21:55 pm
Oh yeah so it is thanks
Title: Re: Sextus Pompey Denarius Pharos lighthouse Messana Crawford 511/4a
Post by: Tracy Aiello on August 01, 2020, 12:38:23 pm
Hello AW,

What a great coin. My small collection of Crawford 511s, and a Q Nasidius, piqued my interest in the career of Sextus Pompey. He gets a pretty bum rap in the classical and standard literature. If I am not mistaken, until Kathryn Welch published her biography of Sextus (Magnus Pius: Sextus Pompeius and the transformation of the Roman Republic. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2012) the only other english language biography of Sextus was by Moses Hadas, simply entitled Sextus Pompey, and that was in 1930! If you’re interested you might also want to check out the collection of essays entitled Sextus Pompeius, edited by Anton Powell and Kathryn Welch (Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2002).

All the best.

Tracy
Title: Re: Sextus Pompey Denarius Pharos lighthouse Messana Crawford 511/4a
Post by: SEstiot on November 12, 2021, 06:06:04 am

Sorry to get back to this post by Adrian W so lately, but this fascinating Sicilian coinage of Q. Nasidius (RRC 483) and Sextus Pompeius (RRC 511) deserves it as a testimony of the war between the imperatores of the finishing Roman Republic, and particularly between the two heirs (Sextus Pompeius, the (last) heir of Pompeius Magnus "Neptunius", and Octavian, the (adopted) heir of Caesar), with its high aesthetical value, the density of its political and iconographical message, borrowing to the Sicilian mythistory (the female monster Scylla, with her belt of barking dogs, destroying the ships in the Strait of Messina ; the lighthouse of the Sicilian port of Catania, the legend of the Catanian brothers taking their parents on their shoulder to rescue them from an Etna eruption, Pompeian image preceding the Augustan exploitation of the theme Aenas carrying his father Anchises on his shoulders to flee from the burning Troy, etc.). Apart of the ideological value of this coinage, a much discussed topic runs on how Sextus Pompeius could get the silver bullion to mint these issues (he rescued in his Sicilian fortress the proscripts of -43, then the 'Republican' crushed at the battle of Philippes -42) and particularly on the chronology of these emissions. For me, the occasion of these emissions was in -42 Sextus Pompeius' naval victory on Q. Salvidienus Rufus in the Strait of Messina, in front of the Scyllaeum Cape, hence the representation of Scylla crushing ships).
Apart of the bibliographical references given by T. Aiello, may I append here the link to an article of mine published in 2006 (Sex. Pompée, la Sicile et la monnaie. Problèmes de datation, so in French alas) which presents the historical background of these wars between the triumviri, the Republican, and the Pompeiani (written sources), discusses chronological issues, analyses the ideological message of Q. Nasidius/Sex. Pompeius emissions in Sicily (compared to the coinage issues by the other protagonists of this complicated period) + bibliography and 2 plates :
https://www.academia.edu/1367979/Sextus_Pomp%C3%A9e_la_Sicile_et_la_monnaie_probl%C3%A8mes_de_datation

S. Estiot

 
Title: Re: Sextus Pompey Denarius Pharos lighthouse Messana Crawford 511/4a
Post by: PMah on November 12, 2021, 08:42:50 pm
Thank you for making your article available!