Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 1039. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Cn. Domitius L.f. Ahenobarbus. 41-40 BC. AR Denarius (3.06 g, 6h). Uncertain mint along the Adriatic or Ionian Sea. Bare head of Ahenobarbus right / Military trophy on prow right. Crawford 519/2; CRI 339; Sydenham 1177; Domitia 21. VF, old gray cabinet toning, minor marks beneath tone, flan flaw on reverse, a pair of shallow edge test cuts.

From the Gordon S. Parry Collection.

Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus accompanied his father at Corfinium and Pharsalus on the side of Pompey. After his pardon by Julius Caesar, he retired to Rome in 46 BC. After Caesar's assassination, Ahenobarbus supported Brutus and Cassius, and in 43 BC was condemned under the terms of the Lex Pedia for complicity in the assassination. Ahenobarbus achieved considerable naval success against the Second Triumvirate in the Ionian theater, where this denarius was certainly minted, but finally, through the mediation of Gaius Asinius Pollio, he reconciled with Mark Antony, who thereupon made him governor of Bithynia. He participated in Antony's campaign against the Parthians, and was consul in 32 BC. When war broke out between Antony and Octavian, Ahenobarbus initially supported Antony, but, disgusted by Antony’s relationship with Cleopatra, sided with Octavian shortly before Actium. His only child, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, was married to Antonia Maior, the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia. Their son, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, married Agrippina Minor, the sister of the emperor Caligula, and was the father of the emperor Nero.