196, Lot: 223. Estimate $300. Sold for $675. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

L. Sulla. 84-83 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.62 g, 1h). Mint with Sulla in Italy. Diademed head of Venus right; to right, Cupid standing left, holding palm / Capis and lituus between two trophies. Crawford 359/2; Sydenham 761; Cornelia 29. Good VF, attractively toned.

This coin is from the first issue of Sulla, struck in his army camp while marching aganst the allies of his nemesis, Marius, in Rome. He is the first of the great imperators of Rome to issue his own personal coinage without the authority of the Senate, the majority of whose members were allied to the Republican-minded Marius.

The iconography of this issue is telling of the self-promotion of Sulla, as the types and legends only refer to himself rather than some ancestor as was typical of the Republican coinage up to that time. Venus appears as she is the patron of Sulla, whom he regards as responsible for his successes for which he received his two acclamations of imperator by his troops. These two acclamations are commemorated by the reverse; the legend and the two trophies are overt references. The jug and lituus, though, are more subtle, but also probably symbolic of his claim to imperium rather than a reference to his holding a position in one of the priestly collages in Rome. This issue, which transformed Roman coinage into a form of propaganda for the issuer (rather than his family), set a precedent which was followed by all the later imperators, and directly led to the development of the imperial coinage.