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Click here to subscribeL. Roscius Fabatus AR Serrate Denarius. Rome, 64 BC. Head of Juno Sospita right, wearing goat-skin headdress; shield behind, [L•ROSCI below] / Female standing right facing serpent; spear in left field, pellet in central field, FABATI in exergue. Crawford 412/1; RSC Roscia 3. 3.86g, 19mm, 6h. Good Extremely Fine; beautiful light cabinet tone. Very rare symbols. Ex private Spanish collection.
Q. Pomponius Musa AR Denarius. Rome, 66 BC. Laureate head of Apollo right; sandal behind / Thalia, the Muse of Comedy and Idyllic Poetry, standing left, holding comic mask and resting elbow on column; Q•POMPONI downwards to right, MVSA downwards to left. Crawford 410/9b; RSC Pomponia 19. 3.66g, 17mm, 1h. Near Mint State; attractive light tone with hints of golden iridescence. Ex private Spanish collection. Thalia, like all the Muses, is the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne and the eighth child born of the nine, her name meaning 'the joyous', or 'the flourishing'.
Constantine I AV Solidus. Antioch, AD 324-325. CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, laureate head right / ADVENTVS AVGVSTI N, Constantine on horseback to left, cloak flying, raising right hand and holding spear in left; SMAN* in exergue. RIC 48 (this coin cited); C. 11; Alföldi 5; Depeyrot 41/1. 4.42g, 20mm, 11h. Good Extremely Fine; light marks on reverse. Extremely Rare. This coin cited in H. Mattingly, et al, The Roman Imperial Coinage Vol. VII (1966); Ex Leu 91, 10 May 2004, lot 689; Ex Hess-Leu 45, 12 May 1970, lot 645; Ex Hess-Leu 24, 16 April 1964, lot 356; Ex Münzen & Medaillen 13, 17-19 June 1954, lot 762. The tetrarchy that had effectively governed the affairs of the empire since the reign of Diocletian broke down irretrievably in its third generation and culminated in the civil war between Licinius in the East and Constantine in the West. With Constantine victorious following the Battle of Chrysopolis on 18 September 324, he became the first sole emperor to rule over the Roman territories since the institution of the tetrarchy in AD 293. This coin commemorates the planned adventus (arrival) of the emperor Constantine I into the Eastern city of Antioch - formerly under the dominion of Licinius - an event for which the mint of Antioch clearly made preparations, but which was cancelled by Constantine who blamed the controversy between the bishop of Alexandria and Arius regarding the nature of Christ’s personhood as the reason for his decision not to go East as planned. This coin therefore stands as an unusual record of a celebration that never took place, which may perhaps explain its extreme rarity - the issue having either been prematurely aborted, or recalled. The adventus coin type with an emperor on horseback was first introduced by Trajan, although precursors can be found in earlier coinage. This coin follows the traditional adventus design, showing the emperor mounted and riding forward with his cloak billowing and his arm raised in a gesture of greeting with the reverse legend explicitly highlighting “the arrival of our emperor”. The adventus of an emperor was marked with great ceremony by the inhabitants of a city and normally involved processions, honours, speeches and gifts in addition to possible benefits to the city itself such as when Constantine I gave tax relief to the city of Augustodunum (modern day Autun).
Nerva AR Denarius. Rome, AD 96. IMP NERVA CAES AVG P M TR P COS II P P, laureate head right / CONCORDIA EXERCITVVM, clasped hands before aquila resting on prow. RIC 3; BMCRE 8; RSC 25. 3.13g, 18mm, 6h. Near Mint State; extraordinarily lustrous with light tone. Ex Áureo & Calicó, 9 November 2017, lot 47.
C. Annius T. f. T. n. and L. Fabius L. f. Hispaniensis AR Denarius. Mint in north Italy or Spain, 82-81 BC. Diademed and draped bust of Anna Perenna right; C•ANNI•T•F•T•N•V•PRO•COS•EX•S•C• around, scales before, winged caduceus behind, symbol (wing?) below / Victory driving galloping quadriga right, holding reins and palm-branch; Q• above, L•FABI•L•F•HIS[P] in exergue. Crawford 366/1a; RSC Annia 2a. 3.89g, 19mm, 8h. Extremely Fine. Beautiful light tone with iridescent highlights. Ex private Spanish collection.
M. Plaetorius M. f. Cestianus AR Denarius. Rome, 69 BC. Male head right, with flowing hair; control mark behind / Winged caduceus; M•PLAETORI downwards to right, CEST•EX•S•C downwards to left. Crawford 405/5; RSC Plaetoria 5. 3.53g, 19mm, 6h. Near Extremely Fine; lustrous metal with light cabinet tone. Ex private Spanish collection.
L. Roscius Fabatus AR Serrate Denarius. Rome, 64 BC. Head of Juno Sospita right, wearing goat-skin headdress; control mark behind, [L•ROSCI below] / Female standing right facing serpent; control mark in left field, pellet in central field, FABATI in exergue. Crawford 412/1; RSC Roscia 3. 3.90g, 19mm, 8h. Mint State. Light cabinet tone with hints of violet and golden iridescence. Ex private Spanish collection.
North Africa, Carthage AR Shekel. Time of Hannibal. Carthago Nova, circa 218-206 BC. Bare male head (Hannibal?) left / Horse right, palm tree behind. MHC 142; ACIP 603; SNG BM Spain 104-5. 7.33g, 22mm, 12h. Good Very Fine; light scuff on edge. Very Rare. This coin is conventionally believed to carry the portrait of Hannibal on the obverse. In 237 BC Hamilcar Barca, after having lost the First Punic War against Rome, but having won the Mercenary War against the Libyans, disembarked at Gadir with a Carthaginian expedition with the purpose of "re-establishing Carthaginian authority in Iberia" (Polybios, Histories, 2.1.6), and within 9 years he had expanded the territory of Carthage well into the Iberian peninsula, securing control of the southern mining district of Baetica and Sierra Morena, before dying in battle in 228. Hamilcar was succeeded by his son-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair who expanded the new province by skilful diplomacy and consolidated it with the foundation of Akra Leuka, Mahon and finally in 227, Qart Hadasht (Latin: Carthago Nova) as his capital. After his untimely death in 221 he was succeeded by Hannibal (247-182), oldest son of Hamilcar Barca, and Hamilcar's second son Hasdrubal (245-207 BC). The Barcids now wielded control over much of the mineral rich Mediterranean side of the peninsula until 219 when Hannibal made the fateful move of taking and sacking Saguntum, a well established Roman ally. The wholesale slaughter of this Roman ally's population, and the arrogance with which the Roman ambassadors sent to Carthage to seek redress were met, led directly to the Second Punic War: the great statesman Quintus Fabius, speaking to the Carthaginian senate, gathered a fold of his toga to his chest and held it out, saying "Here, we bring you peace and war. Take which you will." The Carthaginians replied "Whichever you please - we do not care." Fabius let the fold drop and proclaimed "We give you war."
Maximian AV Aureus. Carthage, AD 296-305. MAXIMIANVS P F AVG, laureate head right / HERCVLI COMITI AVGG ET CAESS NN, Hercules standing to right, nude, resting right hand on grounded club, holding a large apple of the Hesperides in left hand with lion skin draped over forearm; PK in exergue. RIC 3; Calicó 4648. 5.32g, 18mm, 6h. Good Extremely Fine; a couple of minor marks. Extremely Rare; one of as few as perhaps two or three known specimens (Calicó could not find an example to photograph). From a private British collection; Ex Fritz Rudolf Künker 280, 26 September 2016, lot 847. Given the title 'Herculius' by Diocletian, Maximianus' role was always that of the military might to Diocletian's strategic planning, hence the rich and varied series of depictions of Hercules that we see on his coinage. This reverse depicts Hercules after the completion of his eleventh labour - to steal the apples of the Hesperides. The garden of the Hesperides, nymphs of the evening and golden light of sunset, is Hera's garden in the west, where an apple tree grows which produces golden apples conferring immortality when eaten. Planted from the fruited branches that Gaia gave to Hera as a wedding gift when she wed Zeus, the garden and tree were tended by the Hesperides. After Hercules had completed his ten labours, Eurystheus gave him two more, claiming that neither the Hydra counted (because Iolaus helped him) nor the Augean stables either (because he received payment for the job or because the rivers did the work). Thus the first of these two additional labours was to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. During this labour, Hercules had to take the vault of the heavens on his shoulders to relieve Atlas, who was the father of the Hesperides and could therefore persuade them to give up the apples. Having obtained the apples Atlas, relieved of his burden, was unwilling to take it back and offered to deliver the apples in Hercules' stead. Hercules however tricked him by agreeing to take his place on condition that Atlas relieve him temporarily so that he could make his cloak more comfortable. Hercules was thus able to complete the task; as for the apples, as property of the gods, they had to be returned to the garden from which they had been removed, a task that Athena completed on Hercules' behalf. In later years it was thought that the 'golden apples' might have actually been oranges, a fruit unknown to Europe and the Mediterranean before the Middle Ages. Under this assumption, the Greek botanical name chosen for all citrus species was Hesperidoeide ('hesperidoids') and even today the Greek word for the orange fruit is 'Portokali' after the country of Portugal in Iberia near where the Garden of the Hesperides was thought to grow.
Sculpture: ▲ Steven Gregory: Bag Men, Bronze, Signed S Gregory, Set 4 of 9, 127cm high Steven Gregory was born in South Africa in 1952 but has lived in London since the 1960’s. He studied sculpture at St Martins School of Art. Gregory has exhibited widely both in the UK and globally, including Germany, France, Italy, Iceland, New York and Czech Republic. In 2002 he exhibited in Thinking Big, 21st Century British Sculpture, at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice. In 2005-2006 Gregory held a solo exhibition Skulduggery with Cass Sculpture Foundation. In 2006-2007 Damien Hirst, who has been a collector of Gregory’s work since 2002, included some of Gregory’s skull sculptures in his Murderme exhibition In the darkest hour there may be light at the Serpentine Gallery, London. In 2007 Gregory had a solo exhibition Steven Gregory, Bone Stone Bronze at the Nicholas Robinson Gallery in New York. Steven Gregory is also a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibitions in London and continues to maintain a strong presence of work at the Cass Sculpture Foundation, West Sussex where other bronzes in this edition were exhibited. Their exhibition notes remarked; "Anthropomorphic paper bags cast in bronze. These insectile apparitions have amused, enthralled and have even made skin creep, as they are variously funny, intriguing and sinister. Like circus clowns they emerge jauntily from the woodland, their bag bodies in attitudes of buffoonery, frolic and mischief. The sense of carnival is at once fun and a little scary in this bag parade. As children, we all at some point put our heads in paper bags. To hide from the world and yet be part of it, with an assumed identity unlike our own, is as basic as learning to walk. Masks are as old as human ritual, they hide, alter and also protect - and so do paper bags".
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