Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 290. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Sextus Pompey. 44-43 BC. AR Denarius (3.82 g, 9h). Massilia (Marseilles) mint. Q. Nasidius, commander of the fleet. Bare head of Pompey the Great right; trident before; below, dolphin right; NEPTVNI behind / Galley with bank of rowers right, under full sail, helmsman steering rudder, hortator standing on prow; star to upper left; [Q •] NASIDIVS below. Crawford 483/2; CRI 235; Sydenham 1350; Kestner 3698; BMCRR Sicily 21-4; RSC 20 (Pompey the Great). EF, lightly toned, underlying luster, traces of deposits. Bold portrait.

Quintus Nasidius was commander of Sextus' fleet while Sextus was in Massalia watching political events unfold farther 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.