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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sulla80, post: 4561707, member: 99456&quot;][USER=76440]@Carausius[/USER], excellent write-up and coins! Here is a desultor who just missed being fully decapitated by the celator, perhaps the celator was on the side of Sulla.[ATTACH=full]1129143[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3"><b>C. Censorinus</b>,&nbsp; 88 BC, AR Denarius, Rome mint</font></p><p><font size="3"><b>Obv:</b> Jugate, diademed heads right of Numa Pompilius, bearded, and Ancus Marcius</font></p><p><font size="3"><b>Rev:</b> C • CENSO in exergue, two horses galloping right; a desultor riding the nearest one, wearing conical hat and holding whip in right hand; XX below</font></p><p><font size="3"><b>Ref: </b>Crawford 346/1b (obv no control, rev control numeral)</font></p><p><br /></p><p>It was not a pretty time in Rome. After the departure of Sulla for war with Mithridates VI of Pontus, Marius and Cinna retook Rome.&nbsp; Censorinus, a supporter of Marius, executed the consul of 87 BC, Octavius, who got on the wrong side of Cinna one time too many.</p><blockquote><p><font size="4"><i>&quot;Here he [Octavius] was attacked by Censorinus with a body of horse, and again his friends and the soldiers who stood by him urged him to fly and brought him his horse, but he disdained even to&nbsp; arise, and awaited death. Censorinus cut off his head and carried it to Cinna, and it was suspended in the forum in front of the rostra, the first head of a consul that was so exposed. After him the heads of others who were slain were suspended there; and this shocking custom, which began with Octavius, was not discontinued, but was handed down to subsequent massacres.&quot;</i></font></p><p><font size="4"><i>-Appian, <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/1*.html#71" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/1*.html#71" rel="nofollow">The Civil Wars 71.1</a></i></font></p></blockquote><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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