CNG 90, Lot: 1329. Estimate $500. Sold for $1201. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

L. Censorinus. 82 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.98 g, 5h). Rome mint. Laureate head of Apollo right / Marsyas standing left, holding wineskin over shoulder; to right, column surmounted by statue of Minerva(?) standing left. Crawford 363/1d; Sydenham 737; Marcia 24. Superb EF, toned.

Ex Arthur Bally-Herzog Collection (Münzen und Medaillen AG 93, 18 December 2003), lot 35.

The statue of Marsyas, the satyr who was flayed alive for challenging the god Apollo, stood in the Roman Forum near the Rostra Caesaris and the Rostra Augusti and was intimately associated with the Tribunal of the Urban Praetor. Because of its location, the statue came to be associated with libertas (Serv. ad Aen. 3.20 and 4.58; CIL 8.4219 = ILS 6849, 16417, 27771). The presence of the statue on this coin commemorates its setting up in the Forum by the moneyer’s ancestor, C. Marcius Rutilus Censorinus, the first plebeian to become pontifex and augur in 300 BC, who was also one of the first plebeians to become censor.