Lot 5259

Description

L. Plautius Plancus, (47 B.C.), silver denarius, Rome mint, (3.99 grams), obv. mask of Medusa, facing, hair dishevelled, L.PLAVTIVS below, rev. Aurora flying to right, conducting the four horses of the sun, PLAN[CVS] below, (S.429, Cr.453/1a, Syd.959, RSC Plautia 15). Spectacular portrait on a full flan, reverse slightly off centre but displaying superb detail of a complex die engraving, extremely fine and very rare in this condition.

Ex Harlan Berk with ticket. Ovid relates that during the censorship of C. Plautius and Ap. Claudius Caecus in 312 B.C., the latter quarrelled with the Tibicenes, who retired to Tibur. As the people resented their loss, Plautius arranged for them to be placed in wagons and conveyed back to Rome early in the morning. In order that they should not be recognised, their faces were covered with masks. The chariot of Aurora is an allusion to their early arrival and the mask to the concealment of their faces. In commemoration of this event the fetes called Quinquatrus Minusculae were celebrated yearly at Rome on the 13th June, at which those that took part in them wore masks.