The Fleet

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 609. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Sextus Pompey. 44-43 BC. AR Denarius (3.73 g, 6h). Massilia (Marseilles) mint. Q. Nasidius, commander of the fleet. NEPTVNI behind, bare head of Pompey the Great right; dolphin right below; trident before / Q • NASIDIVS below, ornate galley advancing right with bank of rowers and under full sail; on the prow stands the hortator, and in the stern is seated a man guiding the rudder; six-rayed star in upper left field. Crawford 483/2; CRI 235; Sydenham 1350; Kestner 3698; BMCRR Sicily 21-24; RSC 20 (Pompey the Great). Near EF, deeply toned, areas of minor porosity and smoothing beneath tone. Wonderful portrait. Perfectly centered on both sides.

Ex Lanz 92 (4 June 1999), lot 346.

Quintus Nasidius was commander of Sextus' fleet while Sextus was in Massalia watching political events unfold further east. Coins of this issue do not bear the title praefectus classis et orae maritimae (commander-in-chief of the fleet and of the sea coasts) awarded to Sextus by the Senate in April 43 BC, indicating a prior striking date. They also do not bear Sextus' name, although the trident, dolphin, and legend NEPTVNI may refer to Sextus' naval superiority in the western Mediterranean.