Lot 2057

Description

Augustus, (27 B.C. - A.D. 14), silver cistophorus, Ephesus mint, issued 27-26 B.C., Sutherland Group VI, (11.35 grams), obv. IMP CAE SAR, bare head to right of Augustus, rev. AVGVSTVS below Capricorn to right, head to left, bearing cornucopiae, all within laurel wreath, (cf.S. 474-5, RIC 477, BMC 262, Sutherland `The Cistophori of Augustus', Group VI, No.154-173). Lightly toned, top silver surface eaten away on high points, fine and very scarce.

The reverse with the Capricorn, according to Suetonius Theogenes of Apollina, the mathematician, informed Augustus then a youth, of the time of his nativity, wherupon Augustus leaped forward and paid him adoration. He adds 'Augustus soon began to place such reliance on fate, that he published his horoscope, and caused a silver coin to be struck, marked with the constellation Capricorn under which he was born.'