Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 635. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Roman Provincial] PHRYGIA, Fulviana (Eumenia). Fulvia, wife of Mark Antony. Circa 41-40 BC. Æ 20mm (7.43 g). Zmertorix, son of Philonidas, magistrate. Head of Fulvia as winged Nike right; 2 c/ms: monograms in circles / Athena advancing left with spear and shield; the ethnic "Fulviana" has been erased. For coin and countermarks: RPC I 3139; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC Phrygia 21. Near VF, dark green patina, light scratches. ($200)

Fulvia was first married to P. Clodius, the Roman firebrand. After his violent death in 52 BC she married C. Scribonius Curio, who likewise met an untimely end in Africa. She married Mark Antony in 44 BC, and became an outspoken defender of his interests in Rome while he campaigned in the east (and enjoyed the attentions of Cleopatra). The city of Eumenia was re-named Fulviana in her honor by Antony's partisans. By 40 BC Fulvia's strident attacks on Octavian had provoked a reaction, and she had to flee first to southern Italy and then to Greece. She met Antony at Athens, where he upbraided her for antagonizing Octavian when he was trying to maintain a semblance of cordial relations. Fulvia died at Sicyon shortly thereafter. Sometime afterward these coins struck at "Fulviana" had their ethnic scratched off, and two countermarks were applied, one the monogram of old Eumeneia, and the other probably of the magistrate Zmertorix, possibly proclaiming that he did not think the re-naming of the city was a good idea in the first place.