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_datationS.
Estiot