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Roman Empire, Sextus Pompeius, Denarius
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Obv. MAG • PIVS • IMP • ITER,
Bare head of Pompey the Great right; capis to left, lituus to right.
Rev. CLAS • ET • OR[Æ]/(MAR)IT • EX • S • C,
Neptune, naked but for chlamys on left arm, holding apluster and resting right foot on prow, standing left between the Catanaean brothers Anapias and Amphinomus running in opposite directions, bearing their parents on their shoulders; PRÆF above.
Mint: Uncertain Sicilian mint, 37/6 BC.
19mm 3.81g
Crawford 511/3a; CRI 334; Sydenham 1344; RSC 17 (Pompey the Great); BMCRR Sicily 7-10; Kestner 3783-4; RBW 1785.
Provenance:
Ex Münzen & Medaillen AG Basel, Auction 35 (1967), lot 7.
Ex Paul-Francis Jacquier, Auction 51, 15th September 2023, Lot 455.
The brothers Anapias and Amphinomus carried their parents upon their shoulder to safety during an eruption of Mt. Aetna near their home in Sicily. Familial fidelity was highly valued in Roman society, and was used on this issue along with the obverse depicting the head of Pompey the Great to show his son's, Sextus Pompey, fidelity to his memory (written by New York Sale).
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