The Triumvirs. Mark Antony and Octavian. Spring-early summer 41 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.79 g, 12h). Ephesus mint; M. Barbatius Pollio,
quaestor pro praetore. Bare head of Mark Antony right; M • ANT • I(MP) • (AV)G • III • VIR • R • P • C • M • BARBAT • Q • P around / Bare head of Octavian right; CAESAR • IMP • PONT • III • VIR • R • P • C • around. Crawford 517/2; CRI 243; Sydenham 1181; RSC 8a; RBW 1798. Good VF, toned.
Following the assassination of Julius Caesar in March of 44 BC, his power was shared between Mark Antony, the Dictator’s second-in-command, and Gaius Octavius, Caesar’s great-nephew and adopted son. Antony and Octavian united themselves, along with the less powerful figure Lepidus, in what would come to be known as the “Second Triumvirate.” This union was at best a tenuous relationship, as both Antony and Octavian vied for supreme power. While Antony thought of himself as the battle-tested confidant of Caesar, Octavian, just 19 at the time, was unwilling to allow anyone to usurp his position as rightful heir to his adoptive father’s legacy. This double-portrait denarius demonstrates Antony’s perceptions in the developing iconography of the new regime: the portrait of Antony may be taken as the obverse (struck from the anvil die), reserved for the chief ruler, while that of the youthful Octavian marks him as the subordinate. While the triumvirate was renewed in 40 BC and sealed through the marriage of Octavian’s sister to Antony, the political arrangement continued to sour, resulting in civil war and the ultimate destruction of Antony at Actium.
