Earliest Roman Cistophoric Tetradrachm

CNG 102, Lot: 735. Estimate $500. Sold for $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Ephesos. C. Atinius C.f. Praetor, 122-121 BC. AR Tetradrachm (29mm, 12.57 g, 12h). Cistophoric type. Dated CY 13 (122/1 BC). Cista mystica with serpent within ivy wreath / Two serpents entwined around bow and bowcase; caduceus above, IΓ to upper left, torch to right, C • (AT)I-N • C • F below. Stumpf 1b = Kleiner, Dated 19, pl. XIII, 5 = Dewing 2275 (same dies). VF, lower reverse legend re-engraved. Very rare.

The earliest Roman cistophoric tetradrachm. T.R.S. Broughton (The magistrates of the Roman Republic 3. Supplement [1986]), identified this praetor as C. Atinius Labeo, who is best known for attempting to have the censor (and the hero of the Fourth Macedonian War) Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus thrown off the Tarpeian Rock for expelling him from the Senate (see Livy, Per. LIX.10).