Lot 3644

Description

L. Plautius Plancus, silver denarius, issued 47 B.C., Rome Mint, 3.74 grams, C.453/1a-b,d-e, S.959,a, BMC 4004, Sear Plautia 1 (p.75), Obv. Mask of Medusa facing with dishevelled hair and serpents at the side of her face, L. PLAVTIVS below, Rev. Aurora flying to r. conducting the four horses of the Sun, below P[LANCV..], with border of dots. Reverse off centre, otherwise very fine and rare (58).

The moneyer was a brother of L. Munatius but was adopted into the Plautia gens. 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 the Tibur. As the people resented their loss, Plautius caused them to be placed in wagons and conveyed back to Rome early in the morning and in order that they should not be recognised their faces were covered with masks. The chariot of Aurora is an alusion to their early arrival and the mask to the concealment of their faces.