Attractive Portrait of Sulla

CNG 112, Lot: 536. Estimate $2000. Sold for $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Q. Pompeius Rufus. 54 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.91 g, 10h). Rome mint. Bare head of the consul Q. Pompeius Rufus right; Q • POM • RVFI downward to right / Bare head of Sulla right; SVLLA • COS downward to right. Crawford 434/1; Sydenham 908; Pompeia 4; RBW 1544. Old cabinet toning, a few light scratches beneath toning. EF. A wonderful portrait of Sulla.

Ex Lanz 125 (28 November 2005), lot 611; Leu 59 (17 May 1994), lot 209; Sternberg VII (24 November 1977), lot 431.

The moneyer chose to depict both his maternal grandfather, the dictator Sulla, and his paternal grandfather, Quintus Pompeius Rufus, consuls in 88 BC. Pompeius was an ardent supporter of the dictator, and their alliance was further cemented by the marriage of Pompeius’ son to Sulla eldest daughter, Cornelia Sulla. The marriage produced two children, the moneyer responsible for this denarius and Pompeia, second wife of Julius Caesar (whom Caesar famously divorced following the scandal associated with the festival of Bona Dea in 62 BC).