Roman Silver and Bronze Coins

Lot 3387    SESSION 11 (9.30am Thursday 2nd April)    Roman Silver and Bronze Coins

Estimate $600
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $1,250

L. SULLA, (c.84-83 B.C.), silver denarius, mint moving with Sulla, (3.66 grams), obv. diademed head of Venus to right, cupid standing before holding palm branch, L. SVLLA below, rev. Jug and lituus between two trophies IMPER above, ITERVM below, (S.276 [?240 EF], Cr.359/2, Syd.761a, RSC Cornelia 30). Lightly toned, extremely fine and rare.

An exceptional military issue struck by the dictator Sulla in the East as imperator without reference to senatorial authorization. In his early career Sulla served Rome in many capacities, including the arrest of the renegade King Jugurtha in Numidia and at the other end of the Mediterranean officiating at the first negotiations Rome held with Parthia. However, it was not until he reached his 50s that his period of great achievement began. As an aspiring general and politician, Sulla found ample opportunity in Italy during the Social War (91-89 B.C.) and in Greece and the East during the First Mithridatic War (88-84 B.C.) and its aftermath. However, on more than one occasion Sulla's interests clashed with other equally ambitious Romans, not the least of whom was his elder C.Marius. Sulla had amassed experience, power and a fortune in war booty, which in 83 B.C. he used to finance his invasion of Italy, ostensibly to liberate Rome from the legions loyal to the memory of Marius. Though Marius was long dead, his party held firm control until, with the help of younger men such as Crassus and Pompey, Sulla toppled the Marian regime by force of arms. After defending Rome from the Samnites at the battle of the Colline Gate in 82 B.C. and mopping up the remaining Marians in the West, Sulla's dictatorship seemed secure, even though Mithradates was again on the warpath in Asia. He was finaly defeated by agents of Sulla in 81 B.C. Marius was a radical reformer who tried to break the traditional power of the Senate and the wealthy families in Rome; Sulla opposed this and fought to re-establish the old order. Needless to say, the upheavals in both directions were enormously violent and socially disruptive , and in the process both Marius and Sulla earned reputations for their ruthlessness. Sulla alone is credited with executing some 90 senators and 2,600 equestrians. In 79 B.C. he reluctantly forfeited the dictatorship, and a year later he died while living on his estates in Campania. Even though Sulla normally rejected the usual practice of paying most of the state's annual expenses in new coin, he was none the less responsible for a great amount of coinage.