Nicopolis’ Boundary Marked

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 656. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Octavian. 30-29 BC. AR Denarius (4.06 g, 12h). Italian (Rome?) mint. Laureate head of Apollo of Actium right, with features resembling Octavian / IMP CAESAR in exergue, Octavian, as city founder, veiled and wearing priestly robes, plowing right with yoke of oxen, holding whip in outstretched left hand and plow-handle in right. RIC I 272; CRI 424; RSC 117; BMCRE 638-40 = BMCRR Rome 4363-5; BN 92-6. Near EF, toned, test punch on obverse.

This issue alludes to the foundation of Nicopolis in Epiros by Octavian during the Actian campaign. This scene, in which the founder is ploughing with oxen, refers to the Roman custom of fixing a boundary for a new city by marking it with a pomerium, or sacred furrow.