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AR Denarius (Rome, 124 BC)
O/ Helmeted head of Roma right; ROMA downwards behind; X and LABEO upwards before.
R/ Jupiter in quadriga right, holding sceptre and reins with left hand and hurling thunderbolt with right hand; rostrum below; Q FABI in exergue.
3.90g; 17mm
Crawford 273/1 (300 obverse dies/375 reverse dies)
- Bertolami Fine Arts, e-auction 49, lot 669.
Quintus Fabius Q.f. Q.n. Labeo:
Labeo belonged to the illustrious patrician gens Fabia, but his family seldom appears in ancient sources. Contrary to the Pictores, the Buteones, and of course the Maximi, there is only one well-known member for the Labeones: Quintus Fabius, who was Consul in 183. He was also Praetor and Propraetor in charge of the navy in 189-8 (Livy, XXXVII, 50) and successfully set free many Italians from the island of Crete (XXXVII, 60) -- an act that awarded him a triumph, but was however challenged by several Tribunes since he did not fight a single enemy (XXXVIII, 47). Suetonius additionally mentions that Labeo was a poet (Terence, 4).
Our moneyer was probably his grandson. The rostrum on the reverse certainly refers to his grandfather's triumph as naval commander. Nothing else is known on his life, except through inscriptions found on milestones in Spain (CIL, I, 1484), telling us that Q. Fabius Q.f. Labeo was Proconsul. The date is not given, but Mommsen (RE, 93) and Broughton (I, p.544) suggested a date in the end of the 2nd century, which would fit well with a moneyership in 124. It is also possible that the inscriptions refer to his father, the Consul's son.
Collection : Roman Republic