257/1. Vargunteia (130 BC)

AR Denarius (Rome, 130 BC)

O/ Helmeted head of Roma r.; M VARG downwards behind; XVI before.

R/ Jupiter in quadriga r., holding branch, reins & thunderbolt; ROMA in ex.

3.49g; 19mm

Crawford 257/1 (107 obverse dies/134 reverse dies)

Marcus Vargunteius:

This moneyer is only known through his coins. The plebeian gens Vargunteia has similarly left very little traces; only two other magistrates from this gens are mentioned during the Republic: one was a legate to Crassus who died with him at Carrhae (Plutarch, Crassus, 28), the other, Lucius, was a Senator involved in the Catiline Conspiracy (Sallust, Catilina, 17, 28, 47). They might have been the grandsons of our moneyer.

Colección : Roman Republic