Lot 2105

Description

Republic, Mark Antony, triumvir, committed suicide (30 B.C.), silver denarius, mint moving with Antony, issued 41 B.C., issued by moneyer M. Barbatius Pollio, obv. bare head of Antony to right, M ANT IMP AVG III VIR R P C [M BARBAT Q] P around, rev. bare head of Octavian to right, around [CAES]AR IMP PONT III VIR R P C, dotted border, (S.424, Cr. 517/2, Syd. 1181). Flaw on cheek of antony, off centred on reverse, otherwise nearly very fine and rare.

Although produced three years after Julius Caesar's introduction of contemporary portraiture on Roman coinage, this issue displays a very developed style with encircling inscription, upon which all later imperial numismatic iconography was based. The coin was produced by Antony, honouring his colleague in the triumvirate, Octavian. The issue was made in the name of M. Barbatius Pollio, a friend of Julius Caesar and quaestor pro praetore to Antony in the East. The year 41 B.C. saw the first meeting of Antony with Cleopatra, at Tarsus, and he spent the following winter with her in Egypt.