169, Lot: 195. Estimate $200. Sold for $295. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Sextus Pompey. 42-40 BC. AR Denarius (21mm, 3.89 g). Uncertain Sicilian mint, possibly Catana. Bare head of Pompey the Great right between lituus and capis / Neptune standing left, foot on prow, between the brothers Anapias and Amphinomus, carrying their parents on their shoulders. Crawford 511/3a; CRI 334; Sydenham 1344; RSC 17 (Pompey the Great). VF, toned, areas of flat strike.

Ex Superior (6-7 December 1991), lot 613.

Strabo (VI, 2:3) recounts the tale of Anapias and Amphinomus, who rescued their parents during an eruption of Aetna. This example of filial devotion was taken up as a symbol of the Pompeian cause by the last surviving member of the family.