Three Portrait Issues of the Proconsul Africanus Fabius Maximus

Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 1551. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BYZACIUM, Hadrumentum. Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. Æ “As” (7.15 g, 3h). Africanus Fabius Maximus, proconsul and septemvir epulonum; C. Livineius Gallus, quaestor propraetore. Struck 6-5 BC. Bare head of Fabius Africanus right / Elephant advancing left, trampling on serpent. RPC 781; MAA 92; SNG Copenhagen 66. VF, black-green patina with areas of brick-red, some lighter green encrustation.

From the Richard Prideaux Collection of Augustus.

Africanus Fabius Maximus, who was consul in 10 BC along with Iullus Antonius, second son of the triumvir and his first wife, Fulvia. was the brother of Paullus Fabius Maximus, consul of the previous year, and whose portrait also appears on provincial coinage while serving as proconsul of Asia (see lot 1342, above). Africanus was himself proconsul of Africa in 6-5 BC, and also served as a member of the septemviri epulonum, one of the offices normally held as part of the cursus honorum. One of the four quattuor amplissima collegia originally held by Roman pontiffs, the septemviri epulonum were a collegium of seven men whose purpose was to arrange public banquets at various festivals and games held in Rome. Owing to its religious overtones, participation in this office allowed those citizens to whom the offices of augur, pontifex, or quindecimvir sacris faciundis were closed the opportunity to have some religious participation as part of their career.