The Circus Maximus

CNG 112, Lot: 639. Estimate $3000. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ Sestertius (31mm, 27.88 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 213. M AVREL ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, laureate and cuirassed bust right / P M TR P XVI IMP II above, COS IIII P P/ S C in two lines in exergue, The Circus Maximus: the front consists of an arcade of eighteen arches and a large arch on right; just behind on left, driver and quadriga right on arch, uncertain objects left and right of spina, three quadrigae driving left, spectators in gallery; in background, on left, temple, colonnade of three tiers of arches, in which is a quadriga. RIC IV 500b; Banti 47; BMCRE 251 var. (bust type; same rev. die); Mazzini 236* var. (number of arches in arcade). Green patina, hairline flan crack, some minor smoothing. Near VF. Rare.

The Circus Maximus, perhaps the second greatest monument built for the benefit of Rome's citizens after the famed Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum), was restored by Trajan in AD 103. It is portrayed on this coin as seen from the Forum Boarium, and interestingly depicts the spina (the central area adorned with monuments and around which the chariots raced) at a right angle from its actual orientation.