Sale: Nomos 1, Lot: 134. Estimate CHF650.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2009.  Sold For CHF1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

L. Marcius Philippus. 57 BC. Denarius (Silver, 4.32 g 2), Rome. ANCVS Head of Ancus Marcus to right, wearing diadem; behind, lituus Rev. PHILIPPVS Equestrian statue to right, on aqueduct; within the arches of the aqueduct, A-Q-V-A-MAR. Babelon (Marcia) 28. Crawford 425/1. Sydenham 919. Beautifully stuck, well-centered, lightly toned and lustrous. Good extremely fine.

The reverse commemorates the building of the Aqua Marcia, begun by the praetor Q. Marcius Rex in 144 and finished in 140. Its total cost was 180,000,000 sesterces, much of this coming from the vast spoils Rome received from the destruction of Corinth and Carthage, which both took place in 146. Water from this aqueduct still supplies Rome (it was restored by Agrippa, Hadrian, Septimius Severus, Arcadius, and Honorius, among others). The statue depicted on the coin was erected in his honor atop the collecting basin that was built across from the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. The head on the obverse is of the fourth king of Rome, Ancus Marcus, from whom the gens Marcia descended.