Fulvia as Nike

329, Lot: 265. Estimate $300. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHRYGIA, Eumeneia (as Fulvia). Fulvia, first wife of Mark Antony. Circa 41-40 BC. Æ (18mm, 7.63 g, 12h). Zmertorix, the son of Philonides, magistrate. Bust of Fulvia (as Nike) right / Athena standing left, holding shield and spear; ΦOYΛOYIAN[A] in right field, [Z]MEPTOP[IΓOΣ/ΦIΛΩNIΔOΥ] in two lines in left field. RPC 3139; SNG Copenhagen –. VF, dark green patina.

Fulvia was first married to P. Clodius, the Roman firebrand. After his violent death in 52 BC she married C. Scribonius Curio, who likewise met an untimely end in Africa. She married Mark Antony in 44 BC, and became an outspoken defender of his interests in Rome while he campaigned in the east (and enjoyed the attentions of Cleopatra). The city of Eumenia was re-named Fulviana in her honor by Antony's partisans. By 40 BC Fulvia's strident attacks on Octavian had provoked a reaction, and she had to flee first to southern Italy and then to Greece. She met Antony at Athens, where he upbraided her for antagonizing Octavian when he was trying to maintain a semblance of cordial relations. Fulvia died at Sicyon shortly thereafter. Some examples of these coins show that the ethnic was removed from the die and two countermarks were applied, one that was the monogram of old Eumeneia, and the other probably of the magistrate Zmertorix, possibly proclaiming that he did not think such a renaming of the city was a good idea in the first place.