47-46 BC Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio

Q METEL SCIPIO IMP
head of Africa right, laur. and clad in elephant's skin, corn-ear before, plough below

EPPIVS LEG F C

Naked Hercules standing facing right, hand on hip resting on club set on rock

North Africa
47-46 BC

Sear 1380/1

Born Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica. He was adopted by his uncle by marriage and father's second cousin Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius. He married Aemilia Lepida, daughter of Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus (son of the Censor Marcus Livius Drusus and wife Cornelia Scipio and adopted by Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus) and wife Claudia (sister of Appius Claudius Pulcher (Senior)), and was the father in law of Pompey the Great, married to his daughter Cornelia Metella, called Quinta Pompeia for being his fifth wife.

He was Tribune in 59 BC and became Consul with Pompey the Great in 52 BC. During Caesar's civil war, he served the party of Pompey and fought against Caesar and Marcus Antonius. In 49 BC he was sent as Proconsul to Syria and the following year he took part in the Battle of Pharsalus, where he commanded the center of the Republican battleline. After Pharsalus he fled to Africa were he commanded an army with Cato the Younger, losing in the Battle of Thapsus. After the defeat he tried to escape but was cornered by the fleet of Publius Sittius when he wrecked the ship as he tried to escape to the Iberian Peninsula, to continue to fight from there. He committed suicide by stabbing himself so he would not fall at the hands of his enemies.

SOLD to Calgary Coin June 2017