Lot 3425

Description

Mark Antony, triumvir, committed suicide (30 B.C.), silver denarius, mint moving with Antony, issued 41 B.C., issued by moneyer M. Barbatius Pollio, (3.79 g), obv. bare head of Antony to right, M ANT IMP AVG III VIR R P C M BARBAT Q P around, dotted border, rev. bare head of Octavian to right, around CAESAR IMP PONT III VIR R P C, dotted border, (S.1504, Cr. 517/2, Syd. 1181, RSC 8). Attractive lightly toned, 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.