Crawford 445/1b

Moneyer:  L. Cornelius Lentulus and C. Claudius Marcellus, 49 BC.

Denomination: Denarius

Obverse: Triskeles, with winged head of Medusa facing at center; stalk of grain between each leg. 

Reverse:  COS / LENT - MAR Jupiter standing front, head to right, holding thunderbolt in his right hand and eagle in his left.

Reference: Crawford 445/1b

Mint:  military mint travelling with Pompey in the East.

Weight: 

Note:  Wonderful, old cabinet tone!

Struck under the exiled (Pompeian) consuls, Lentulus and Marcellus, the type references both family history and Roman power. The issue has traditionally been assigned to a mint operating in Sicily, but the hurried nature of the Pompeian withdrawal from Brundisium to Greece suggests it was struck somewhere in the East. The obverse recalls that it was M. Claudius Marcellus, the ancestor of the current consul, who conquered Syracuse in 211 BC. The reverse depicts Jupiter, the chief deity of the Roman pantheon and thus a symbol of unity, and may copy the famous statue of Zeus Eleutherius by Myron. Jupiter appears on all the joint issues of the Lentulus and Marcellus. 

Collezione : 16 Roman Republic