Three Portrait Issues of the Proconsul Fabius Maximus

Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 1342. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHRYGIA, Hierapolis. Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. Æ 16mm (3.36 g, 12h). Fabius Maximus, proconsul; Bryon, son of Bryon, grammateus. Struck circa 10/9 BC. Bare head of Fabius Maximus right / Ethnic and name of grammateus in three lines. RPC 2934; SNG München -. Near VF, earthen black-green patina. Rare.

From the Patrick Villemur Collection. Ex Sternberg XXV (25 November 1991), lot 154.

Paullus Fabius Maximus, of the famed patrician gens Fabia, had served as consul in 11 BC. His time as proconsul in Asia is firmly set by the details of a solar calendar that he introduced in Asia during his tenure there (V. Ehrenberg and A.H.M. Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reign of Augustus [Oxford, 1976], pp. 115-6). Paullus Fabius was a close friend of Augustus, and his wife, Marcia, was a first cousin of the emperor. There is speculation that he committed suicide after being linked to the controversy surrounding Julia the Elder. His brother, Africanus Fabius Maximus, was consul in 10 BC, and his portrait also appears on provincial coins, as proconsul in Africa (see lot 1551, below).