Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1748. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $450. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Hieropolis-Castabala. Augustus. 27 BC-14 AD. Æ 15mm (2.85 gm). Issued 10-9 BC under the proconsul Fabius Maximus. [F]ABIOS MAXIMOS, bare head of Fabius Maximus right / IERAPO/LEITWN/DRUAS in three lines within wreath. RPC I 2941 (same dies as plated specimen); AMC 1386; Grant, FITA pg. 387. VF, brown patina with earthen highlights. Extremely rare, only four specimens recorded in RPC. ($750)

Fabius Maximus was related to Augustus by marriage and thus belonged to the emperor’s inner circle of friends and confidents, i.e., amici principis. This coinage, unusual in that it portrays the proconsul rather than the emperor on the obverse, propagandizes the amicitia between the proconsul and the emperor.