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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zadie, post: 7878580, member: 114699&quot;][ATTACH=full]1358383[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><font size="3">Republican Cistophori. L. Sempronius Atratinus (?) Quaestor. AR Cistophoric tetradrachm. Pergamon (?), 40-39 BC. Serpent emerging from cista mystica; all within wreath / Serpents entwined around bowcase. Q to left, thyrsus entwined by serpent to right. ATRA monogram above. 25.3mm, 12.59 g. SNG France 1766; Metcalf, “A Note on the Later Republican Cistophori,” SNR 88 (2009), pp. 205-8, pl. 15.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>This type highly resembles the ordinary civic issues of Pergamon in both style and legend. As such, it often gets missatributed. However, it turns out this enigmatic little coin belongs to a wider series of imperatorial issues struck in Ephesus and Pergamon, or neither.</p><p><br /></p><p>The monogram has historically been attributed to Lucius Antonius as proquaestor propraetore after the previous governor, Q. Minucius Thermus left him in command of Asia in 49. Later analysis has lead to other attributions as well. Including that of M. Antonius, who was quaestor in Asia in 113 BC and the grandfather of both Lucius and Mark Antony.</p><p><br /></p><p>Metcalf brings forth a theory of his own; Combining hoard data and interpreting the monogram as standing for ATPATIN in greek makes for quite a compelling argument that the issuer of this coin is indeed L. Sempronius Atratinus, a legate of Mark Antony, Atratinus served as praetor suffectus in 40 and propraetor in Asia in 39. Just prior to the battle of Actium, he defected to the side of Octavian and ended his political career as governor of Africa in 23. For which actions taken there he was granted a triumph in 21 BC.</p><p><br /></p><p>Next: Provincial from the late republic[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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