Symbol for Augustus’ Legion

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 834. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $19000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AV Aureus (7.12 g, 6h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck 15 BC. AVGVSTVS DIVI • F, bare head right / IMP • X in exergue, bull butting right, left foreleg raised, lashing his tail. RIC I 166a; Lyon 18; Calicó 212; BMCRE 450 = BMCRR Gaul 162; BN 1372. EF, underlying luster. Rare.

Prideaux notes that along with Apollo and Diana, the butting bull is one of the most common reverse designs on the Lugdunum imperial (military) coinage. It has been tentatively linked to the herds of southern Gaul, to the Rhodanum (mod. Rhône), and even as a symbol of the god Mars(?), but these ideas have no substantial foundation. Any unusual reference, or difficult interpretation, would have been solved by engraving some explicit detail or short legend. The butting bull was necessarily some obvious symbol. Prideaux notes that the bull on RIC 475, with its head erect, was the emblem of Caesar’s legions, so with little risk of error we can say the butting bull must have been the emblem of Augustus’ legions, inspired by his adoptive father’s. The imperator’s legionary emblem was known and famous to all soldiers as well as the empire’s inhabitants. It didn’t need a legend to be read and understood, and it fits well with the Apollo and Diana types making a coherent group.