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The Triumvirs. Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Autumn 34 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.74 g, 12h). Alexandria mint(?). Bare head of Mark Antony right; Armenian tiara to left, ANTONI • ARMENIA • DEVICTA around / Diademed and draped bust of Cleopatra right; at point of bust, prow right; CLEOPATRAE REGINAE • REGVM • FILIORVM • REGVM around. Crawford 543/1; CRI 345; Sydenham 1210; RSC 1; BMCRR East 179–81; cf. Kestner 3836; RBW 1832. Toned, scratch on obverse. Near EF.
From the PLZ Collection. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 45 (2 April 2008), lot 56; Superior (8 December 1995), lot 872; Massachusetts Historical Society/John Quincy Adams Family Collection (Part I, Stack’s, 5 March 1971), lot 688.
Great provenance and portraits on a denarius that's hard to find in this grade. (PLZ)
Cleopatra VII Philopator Thea Neotera (“father-loving new goddess”) was a key player in the power struggles of the waning Roman Republic and the only female to contend for supreme power. The last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, she was born in 69 BC and succeeded her father Ptolemy XII "Auletes" in 51 BC. However, her weak-willed younger brother and co-ruler, Ptolemy XIII, was dominated by a circle of courtiers who feared Cleopatra's keen intellect and resolute will. Consequently, they ousted and exiled her in 48 BC, shortly before the Roman general Pompey the Great arrived in Alexandria fresh from his defeat by Julius Caesar at the battle of Pharsalus. Ptolemy ordered Pompey's murder, but this only outraged Caesar, who showed up days later and occupied the royal palace. Cleopatra had herself smuggled in to Caesar wrapped in a carpet, and this display of moxie by the nubile 20-year-old enchanted the dictator. The two likely became lovers that night. Caesar tarried a while longer in Egypt while Cleopatra conceived and bore him a son. When Caesar returned to Rome in 47 BC, he summoned Cleopatra to join him the following year. She was thus in Rome when Caesar was murdered on March 15, 44 BC.
Returning to Alexandria, she was summoned to meet the Triumvir Mark Antony at Tarsus in 41 BC. Once again, a powerful Roman succumbed to Cleopatra’s charms, and within a year she had borne Antony twins, a boy and a girl. In 37 BC, Cleopatra provided money and supplies in support of Antony’s abortive invasion of Parthia and a punitive raid on Armenia the following year. In 34 BC, Antony held a Roman-style triumphal parade in Alexandria, and afterwards staged an elaborate ceremony, the “Donations of Alexandria,” in which he bestowed most of Rome’s eastern possessions upon Cleopatra and her children. These acts shocked the Roman people and gave his partner in power, Octavian, the excuse he needed to declare war on Egypt in 32 BC. Antony fought a lethargic campaign and suffered a heavy naval defeat at Actium in September, 31 BC, after which he and Cleopatra fled back to Alexandria. Upon Octavian’s approach in 30 BC, Antony committed suicide and Cleopatra followed suit days later, utilizing the poisonous bite of the sacred asp.
Cleopatra struck Egyptian coinage in her own name, with some issues bearing her portrait. As her empire grew, provincial mints began striking coins with her image and titles, including some pairing her portrait with that of Mark Antony. This silver denarius issue, bearing the dual portraits of Cleopatra and Antony, is believed to have been struck at Alexandria circa 34 BC and is likely tied to Antony’s triumph and the infamous donations. Remarkably for an ostensibly Roman coin, it bears the portrait of a foreign queen who is shown as coequal to the Triumvir and Proconsul Antony. Whether Cleopatra or Antony occupies the obverse is open to conjecture. The legends may be translated as “[coin] of Antony, with Armenia being Conquered, for Cleopatra, Queen of Kings and of her Sons, being Kings.” The Armenian crown behind Antony represents his victorious Roman army, the prow beneath Cleopatra (which appears on no other Roman coin of hers) stands for the mighty Egyptian fleet; combined they symbolize the full array of forces that Antony would marshal against Octavian at Actium.
Nicely centered with complete legends and old cabinet toning. A difficult coin to find in this grade with these attributes
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