Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1369. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $520. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MARK ANTONY and OCTAVIA. 39 BC. AR Cistophoric Tetradrachm (11.77 gm, 12h). Ephesus mint. Head of Antony right, wearing ivy wreath, lituus below; all within wreath of ivy and flowers / Draped bust of Octavia right above cista; flanked by coiled snakes. RPC I 2201; CRI 262; Sydenham 1197; RSC 2. VF, oblong flan. "PAPR" graffito in obverse field. ($500)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection.

Shortly after the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, cracks began to appear in the Second Triumvirate. Antony's affair with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and his designs on Rome's eastern holdings, prompted Octavian to formulate a binding agreement that would buy him time. At Brundisium a pact was signed, bringing about a reconciliation and some semblance of peace. As a condition of this reconciliation, Antony was married to Octavian's widowed sister, Octavia. She stayed with him in Athens while he continued to prepare for a war against Parthia, and where, in 39 BC, he was associated with the "New Dionysus". In 37 BC, she helped negotiate the Pact of Tarentum, which renewed the triumvirate until 33 BC. Antony by this time, however, had renewed his affair with Cleopatra. He remained in the East, where he married the queen, and subsequently fathered several children. In 32 BC, as a renewal of civil war became imminent, Antony divorced Octavia. After Antony's death, Octavia, known for her loyalty and nobility, brought Antony's surviving children to Rome to live with her.