Triumphal Procession for Actium

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 649. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Octavian. 30 BC. AR Denarius (3.89 g, 12h). Italian (Rome?) mint. Victory, draped, standing right on prow, holding palm frond over left shoulder in left hand and wreath in extended right hand / IM[P CAESAR] in exergue, Octavian driving triumphal quadriga right, the car ornamented with figures on its front and side panels, holding reins in left hand and branch in right. RIC I 264; CRI 416; RSC 115; BMCRE 617-9 = BMCRR Rome 4343-5; BN 98-104. Near EF, toned, small area of flat strike.

This coin commemorates Octavian’s fresh victory at Actium. The obverse, showing Victory standing on a prow, is reminiscent of the type featured on the coins of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and reflects the manner of Octavian’s victory. The reverse displays Octavian as the victor, involved in the triumphal procession in Rome, which wended its way from the Forum to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. This victory, however, was portrayed as being over the foreign queen Cleopatra, rather than Antony and those Romans who supported him.