Lot 4741

Description

Phoenicia, Orthosia, Cleopatra VII, (51-30 B.C.), struck in Year 3 of Cleopatra's Phoenician regal years = 35-34 B.C., AE 20, (8.70 g), obv. draped bust of Cleopatra VII to right, rev. Baal of Orthosia in chariot pulled by two griffins to right, L**G*, in exergue (S.-, RPC I 4501, SNG Cop.174 var. [year 3], Pitchfork Hosking Collection 170). Good very fine, dark green patina patina, excellent portrait of Cleopatra, very rare.

Ex Dr. Adrian Carr Collection and purchased from Malter Galleries, Encino Ca, USA in 2001.
Orthosia is a coastal town about 8 miles north-east of Tripolis and was bequeathed to Cleopatra by Marc Antony. It needs to be remembered that when the senatorial party of Brutus and Cassius was defeated by Antony and Octavian, the victors agreed that Octavian should have Italy and the west and Antony the governance of Rome's eastern empire. Antony proceeded to Asia Minor to be welcomed with all ceremony and flattery by the Greek cities of the coast; Ephesus hailed him as the new Dionysus.
It would be recalled that Antony became infatuated with Cleopatra and at the time was married to Fulvia, who while Antony was in Greece, had with Antony's brother, Lucius raised a revolt against Octavian. This revolt failed and Fulvia went to Athens where she died soon after. Antony sought to make peace with Octavian and as part of such a gesture, married his sister Octavia. Antony and Octavia lived together for three years before he returned to Syria to launch a campaign against the Parthians. He was short of money and asked Cleopatra to help. Her price was that he marry her and in so doing help her domestic quest for power over her brother. Antony agreed and while the marriage was performed according to Egyptian rites, it was not recognised in Rome as being legal. Antony was later to file for divorce against Octavia (in May 32 B.C.), but as part of a dowry Antony gave Cleopatra the territories of Cilicia, Coele Syria, Transjordan and the Jericho Valley. Cleopatra also wanted Judea but Antony would not agree, as it was Roman policy to maintain Judea as an independent kingdom, a frontier fortress against the Parthians. Besides, King Herod was a personal friend whom he had helped to place on the throne in Jerusalem, and he knew Cleopatra hated Herod and would dispose of him. These territories that comprised the dowry, along with Palestine, had belonged to Egypt and become part of the Seleucid kingdom only to be captured by Pompey the Great such that Syria was now a Roman province.