Lot 2089

Description

Republic, L. Torquatus, (c.65 B.C.), silver denarius, Rome mint, obv. head of Sibylla, with border of dots, below, [SI]BYLLA, rev. L. TORQVAT III VIR divided by a tripod surmounted by amphora, between two stars, all within ornamental torque, (S.-, Cr. 411/1b, Syd. 835). A flat spot on both sides, attractive dark tone with very high relief, good extremely fine and very rare.

The moneyer was probably the accuser in 62 B.C., of Sulla for complicity in the Catiline conspiracies. The type gives the emblems of the quindecimviri, who were members of the ecclesiastical college, an office probably held by an ancestor.