Well Centered on a Broad Flan

Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 527. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Sextus Pompey. 42-40 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.94 g, 11h). Uncertain Sicilian mint, possibly Catana. Bare head of Pompey the Great right; capis behind, lituus before, MAG • PIVS IMP • ITER around / Neptune standing left, holding aplustre in right hand, resting right foot on prow, between the brothers Anapias and Amphinomus, carrying their parents on their shoulders; PRÆF • above, CLAS • ET • ORÆ •/[MAR]IT • EX • S • C • in two lines in exergue. Crawford 511/3a; CRI 334; Sydenham 1344; Kestner 3783-4; BMCRR Sicily 7; RSC 17 (Pompey the Great). EF, toned. Struck on a magnificent broad flan.

Sextus Pompey, the younger son of Pompey the Great, inherited his father's vast influence and personal following. He first established himself in Spain in 44 BC as the successful leader of the anti-Caesarian forces. Following the death of Caesar, the Senate, believing itself freed from the domination of the Caesarians, bestowed on Sextus the title of praefectus classis et orae maritimae (Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet and of the Sea Coasts). Four months later, however, the Senate was forced by Octavian and the second triumvirate to rescind this title and Sextus was proscribed. Upon receiving word of the Senate's abrogation of his commission and receiving reports of the revenge the Caesarians were exacting on the leading figures in Rome, Sextus set sail from Massalia in Gaul and headed for Sicily. Here he established a powerful base from which he could blockade Italy and provide a safe haven for those fleeing the proscriptions. Alarmed at these developements, Octavian sent a naval squadron under the command of Salvidienus Rufus to handle the situation, but Salvidienus was defeated off the coast of Rhegium. Following this battle, Sextus took the title of imperator iterum. Sextus continued the republican struggle against the second triumvirate until his death in 36 BC.