249/1. Maenia (132 BC)

AR Denarius (Rome, 132 BC)

O/ Helmeted head of Roma right; XVI downwards behind.

R/ Victory in quadriga right, holding reins and palm-branch in left hand and wreath in right hand; P MAE ANT below; ROMA in exergue.

3.82g; 19mm

Crawford 249/1 (98 obverse dies/122 reverse dies)

- Naville Numismatics Live Auction 61 (08/11/2020), lot 286 ("from an European collection").

Publius Maenius M.f. Antiaticus:

Antiaticus belonged to the plebeian gens Maenia. Other Maenii are recorded in the 2nd century, such as Titus, Gaius, and Quintus Maenius, Praetors respectively in 186, 180, and 170, or Publius Maenius, moneyer in 194–190, perhaps the grandfather of our moneyer.

Antiaticus claimed descent from Gaius Maenius, Consul in 338, Dictator in 320 and 314, who defeated the Volsci by taking their city of Antium in 338, thus putting an end to the Second Latin War and also the conquest of Latium. The cognomen Antiaticus comes from this victory, for which Gaius Maenius was also rewarded by a statue on the Forum, possibly at the top of a column (Cicero, Pro Sestio, 58; Livy, viii. 13).

The life of Antiaticus is still very obscure, and it seems he did not hold other office. He is only known through his coins.

Eckel read ME at the end of the legend on the triens and quadrans and conjectured that it might have been the first letters of an agnomen Megellus or Medulinus (V, p.240-1), but it seems very unlikely that a moneyer could have received an agnomen so early in his career. Perhaps Eckhel could not see good examples of this type; in any case, the legend on this coin clearly reads as MF, for Marcus filius.

Collection : Roman Republic