164, Lot: 113. Estimate $200. Sold for $321. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

P. Licinius Crassus M.f. 55 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.74 g). Laureate and diademed head of Venus right / Female figure standing facing, holding horse by the bridle; shield and cuirass at her feet. Crawford 430/1; Sydenham 929; Licinia 18. Good VF, light toning around devices, some striking weakness, choice flan.

The moneyer was the younger son of the triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus. The reverse type of a female warrior with horse and armor has excited a great deal of interpretative arguments. She has been suggested as a symbol of: the battle of the Colline Gate in 82 BC, where M. Crassus played a leading role in the victory of Sulla’s forces; the surrender of Tigranes of Armenia to Pompey in 65 BC; a troop of Gallic horsemen raised by P. Crassus. Crawford rejects all of these interpretations, but offers none of his own.

Crawford's description of the female figure mentions her as having “long hair and wears a curious head-dress with two projections on the front”. Close examination of high grade specimens suggests the “long hair” is in fact part of the head-dress. It is a soft cap with neckpiece and a rolled brim, exactly like the Persian kyrbasia.An allusion to M. Crassus and his appointment as governor of Syria, with subsequent grandiose plans for the invasion of Parthia, seems unmistakable. In any case, Publius Crassus died with his father at the battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.