183, Lot: 173. Estimate $150. Sold for $227. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

L. Livineius Regulus. 42 BC. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.84 g, 1h). Rome mint. Head of the praetor L. Livineius Regulus right / Gladiator in foreground spearing lion, another behind him spearing a panther, a wounded bear awaits. Crawford 494/30; CRI 179; Sydenham 1112; Livineia 12. VF, light scratches and porosity, surface roughness.

The type represent the responsibility of the praefectus urbi to provide public entertainment in the form of gladiatorial games. The wounded animal awaiting the attentions of the gladiators is usually identified as a boar, but the general view of better specimens suggests it is probably a bear. Pliny relates that Caesar inaugurated bear fights, the speciality of the Thessalians, in Rome.