Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 840. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AUGUSTUS. 27 BC-14 AD. AR Denarius (3.89 gm). Spanish mint (Colonia Caesaraugusta?). Struck circa 19-18 BC. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, bare head right / S P Q R / CL V in two lines across shield. RIC I 42a; BMCRE 334; BN 1313; RSC 294. Toned, good VF. [See color enlargement on plate 13] ($1500)

In the Res Gestae, Augustus records that the Senate, in giving him the title Augustus, also decreed that the doorposts of his house be officially decorated with laurel, that the corona civica be placed over the door, and that a shield be displayed in the Curia Iulia. This shield, or clipeus, had been dedicated to him by the Senate and the Roman People on account of his virtues of bravery, clemency, justice, and piety; virtues which were inscribed on the shield itself. Copies of it were then set up all over the Roman world. The return of the Roman standards captured by the Parthians in earlier conflicts in 19 BC offered an excellent opportunity to once again recall Augustus' pietas, one of the virtues recorded on the clipeus.