Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1237. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $365. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHOENICIA, Sidon. Elagabalus. 218-222 AD. Æ 30mm (22.75 gm, 12h). IMP CAESAR M AV ANTONINV, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / AVR PIA SIDON COL MET, AETER BFI in exergue, two-handled modius containing four grain ears. SNG Copenhagen -; cf. BMC Phoenicia 274-278 (legend). VF, red and green patina. Rare. ($300)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex Freeman & Sear 7 (22 February 2002), lot 277

This rare type records the imperial reward to Sidon regarding the res frumentaria, or grain-supply. Like those other cities which had supported Septimius Severus against Pescennius Niger in 193-194 AD, the new emperor and his immediate cognate successors rewarded them with gifts of grain (for a similar reward under Caracalla, see lot 1153 above). According to Rostovtzeff (NC [1900], p. 100), such a gift could be substituted with money; it is to this latter gift, he argues, that our coin refers. This money would go to the local sitwnai (Lat. frumentarii), officials charged with providing grain for the city.