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Antony & Octavia tetradrachm
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M ANTONIVS IMP COS DESIG ITER ET TERT
Conjoined heads of Antony and Octavia right, Antony wearing an ivy wreath
III VIR RPC
Dionysus standing left, holding cantharus and thyrsus on cista mystica flanked by two interlaced snakes
Ephesus, summer-autumn 39 BC
11.22g
Imperators 263, RPC 2202, Babelon Antonia 61, Syndenham 1198, BMCRR east 135
Punch mark on the obverse protrudes onto the reverse
Ex-Numisantique
This series of Cistophori from Asia commemorates the marriage of Antony and Octavia and celebrate's Antony's divine status in the east as the "New Dionysus" which was bestowed on him when he arrived in Ephesus in 41 BC. Antony's titulature of "Imperator and Consul designate for the second and third times" fixes the period of issue to the latter part of 39 BC after the Pact of Misenum in July and before Antony's second Imperatorial acclamation in the winter of 39-38BC
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