Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 2258. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Antiquities] ROMAN. Bronze insignia of Beneficiarius Consularis. 2nd-3rd century AD. Size, 80mm x 34mm; weight, 25.89 gm. Lance-head design with ornate scrollwork on either side symbolizing office. Rivets for holding insignia to leather strap still attached. Cf. N.J. Austin & B. Rankov, Exploratio (London & New York, Routledge; reprint, 2002), pl. 10. Gray-green and brick-red patina, minor smoothing to upper surfaces, one section of scrollwork cracked, but intact. ($2000)

First recorded in the second century AD, the beneficiarii consulares were individuals who served on the staff of the Roman governor and performed a number of bureaucratic functions, including the handling of important dispatches along the cursus publicus, or imperial post highway. Manning stationes, or outposts, there, they seem to have also acted as a type of customs-police. To distinguish their position, their officers carried an ornate spear-tipped standard, while the lower grades wore a similarly-styled badge, such as this specimen, on a leather belt or strap. The origin of the design is otherwise unknown.