The Civil Wars of Marius and Sulla were a chaotic and violent period in Rome. Both the Marian and Sullan factions held the city of Rome at different times and with each change of control and military defeat came purges against the losing side. Many supporters of both sides lost their lives during this conflict including the individual responsible for the mintage of the coin I'm sharing today. Quintus Antonius Balbus was a member of the Marian faction and was appointed praetor of Sardinia in the elections of 83 BC. Before leaving for Sardinia, however, the Senate ordered him to take silver from the treasures of the temples(Valerius Maximus 7.6.4) and strike it into denarii to finance the armies that were being raised to resist the return of Sulla, including his own. The idea of a praetor(as opposed to a triumvir monetalis) being ordered to coin denarii might sound strange, but given the chaotic state of Rome at the time and the fact that the moneyer likely needed a large sum of money to finance his force in Sardinia, it makes sense that he might be required to oversee its mintage. Babelon even suggested that these denarii were minted in Sardinia, but Greuber in BMCRR points out that the good style and fabric of these denarii suggests the Rome mint and not a local mintage. Unfortunately for Quintus, his command as praetor in Sardinia would be his last. His armies were defeated by Sulla's lieutenant-general L. Phillipus and he was evicted from his office and slain. Rome would also fall to Sulla's armies at the Battle of the Colline gate, and the much of the remainder of the Marian faction were either executed or slipped away from the city and went on the run. Roman Republic AR Denarius(18mm, 4.23g, 6h), Quintus Antonius Balbus, Praetor, 83-82 BC, Rome mint. Laureate head of Jupiter right; behind, S•C downwards. Border of dots / Victory in quadriga right, holding reins and palm-branch in left hand and wreath in right hand; in exerge Q•[ANT]O•B[AL]B PR. Border of dots. Crawford 364/1d; Russo RBW 1374; Antonia 1. Please share anything relevant!
Hey, I have one of these! I only have a half dozen ancients, but I picked this up last year. I really like how well centered the reverse is on yours.
That always sucks but this is a pretty common issue so I'm sure you'll find another one, maybe an even nicer one. It seems like every RR auction with more than a handful of coins has one.
Nice coin and write-up, Spork. It's interesting given the time period and the circumstances that this issue was minted that so much care was taken to a create serrated flans and such reasonably well executed dies with all of the reverse detail and for such a large issue. Here is my non serrated oddity.
My Balbus is nothing special and adds nothing here for equal time I'll add my C. Marius Capito who was apparently a Sullan despite his name. This coin gets a thorough discussion in Harlan (red cover) suggesting the moneyer was selected precisely for his name being 'unusual' for a Sulla supporter and points out that you don't have to be stupid and support cause of the old Marius (now dead) and Marius the Younger (ditto) beyond where it is reasonable. Harlan quotes a parable spoken by Sulla about a plowman who was bitten by fleas (a hazard of hanging out with oxen, I gather) so twice he stopped and shook out his cloak to no avail. The third time, he took off his cloak and burned it. The final line of the parable from Sulla was, "And I advise those who have been defeated twice not to stand in need of fire the third time." These are unusual in that the dies were used as a set so the number is the same on both sides. Mine is 37. There is also a symbol under the chin of Ceres. Mine sure looks like a scorpion but Banti calls his 'astuccio' which I can not find in Italian resources with a meaning other than 'case' which is not what we have here. Republican experts please help.
Crawford calls the symbol on die pair "XXXVII" a scorpion and it sure looks like a scorpion to me too. On the topic of Harlan, my copies should be coming in tomorrow if the mail trucks can get up here in the foot or so of snow we got in the past 24 hours. Really looking forward to reading through and sharing my thoughts.
Here's another - no toning left on this one. Seller's pics as they are better than what I can produce.
I just thought I would play around and see what your coin might look like with a black background. Hopefully you don't mind.
Thanks @Bing - looks much better with a black background. This is one of my favorites as I really like the look of the quadriga. Great write-up @red_spork - always nice to have the historical background to go along with the coins.
