Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 512. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Sextus Pompey. 44-43 BC. AR Denarius (3.65 g, 6h). Massilia (Marseilles) mint. Q. Nasidius, commander of the fleet. Bare head of Pompey the Great right; NEPTVNI behind, trident before, dolphin right below / Galley advancing right with bank of rowers, under full sail, helmsman steering rudder seated at stern, hortator standing on prow; six-rayed star in upper left field; Q • NA[S]IDIVS below. Crawford 483/2; CRI 235; Sydenham 1350; Kestner 3698; BMCRR Sicily 21-4; RSC 20 (Pompey the Great). Good VF, lustrous, typical area of striking flatness on head and corresponding reverse.

Quintus Nasidius was commander of Sextus' fleet while Sextus was in Massalia watching political events unfold further east. Coins of this issue do not bear the title praefectus classis et orae maritimae (commander-in-chief of the fleet and of the sea coasts) awarded to Sextus by the Senate in April 43 BC, indicating a prior striking date. They also do not bear Sextus' name, although the trident, dolphin, and legend NEPTVNI may refer to Sextus' naval superiority in the western Mediterranean.