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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 3969662, member: 74282&quot;]I really didn&#039;t expect to buy any more coins after I made my top 10 list but I couldn&#039;t resist this cute little denarius. I originally passed on it when I spotted it as I was bothered by the minor porosity and die rust, but it was surprisingly well priced(at a significant discount from either of the CNG sale prices), especially for the complete reverse legend and monogram, features which are surprisingly tough to get on examples of this type. After some urging by [USER=100445]@Michael Stolt[/USER] I finally hit that &quot;buy it now&quot; button and I&#039;m pretty happy with it. Even with it&#039;s problems it&#039;ll be a tough example to really upgrade.</p><p><br /></p><p>As with many coins of the gens Postumia, this type depicts Diana on the obverse with her hound and a spear on the reverse. Diana makes regular appearances on the coins of the Postumii, and the family&#039;s association with the goddess of the hunt goes all the way back to the Roman Kingdom, well before Rome was the Mediterranean superpower it would have been circa 73 B.C. when this denarius was minted.</p><p><br /></p><p>At this time Rome was still vying for power over the tribes and villages around it. The Latin tribes joined with Rome to build a temple to Diana which they had decided to place in Rome, in imitation of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. As the story goes, a Sabine man had raised a massive and beautiful heifer which he intended to sacrifice at the temple. Soothsayers foretold that the state of the citizen who sacrificed this heifer would become the seat of an empire. As the Sabine approached the altar with his victim, a Roman priest who had heard the prophecy tricked the man, telling him he should cleanse himself in the Tiber before the sacrifice. When the man left, the priest promptly sacrificed the heifer to Diana, to the great satisfaction of the Roman people.</p><p><br /></p><p>This prophecy was fulfilled later, circa 498 or 496 B.C., shortly after the founding of the Roman Republic. The Romans expelled king Tarquinius Superbus, only to quickly find themselves at war with the Latin League, lead by their recently expelled monarch. In the face of this attempted invasion, the Romans appointed their consul, Aulus Postumius Albinus, to the role of dictator. The dictator-lead army of the Romans defeated the Latin League at the Battle of Lake Regillus and the Latin League abandoned the field and acknowledged the leadership of Rome. This was of course just one in a series of wars and battles that would see Rome&#039;s area of influence expand across the Mediterranean and beyond, but an important early milestone in their conquest and one that is not surprising to see commemorated on coinage. It is also believed that the early Dioscuri denarius reverses likely also refer to this battle, but that&#039;s a discussion for another time.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1044283[/ATTACH]</p><p>Roman Republic AR Denarius(18mm, 3.81g, 7h). 73 B.C., Rome mint. Draped bust of Diana right, with bow and quiver over shoulder / Hound running right; spear below. C POSTVMI and TA monogram in exergue. Crawford 394/1a</p><p>Ex Sayagaki, eBay, 19 December 2019, ex CNG e-Auction 449, 31 July 2019, lot 473, ex CNG e-Auction 319, 29 January 2014, lot 344, ex <a href="https://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/special-collections/foreword.php?specialcollection_id=354" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/special-collections/foreword.php?specialcollection_id=354" rel="nofollow">Ronald J Hansen</a> Collection</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a related coin from my own collection, and part of the reason I wanted this Roman type so bad: an Eraviscan imitation of it. You can read more about this one <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/newp-a-published-eraviscan-denarius.303884/#post-2870100" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/newp-a-published-eraviscan-denarius.303884/#post-2870100">here</a>.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1044496[/ATTACH]</p><p>Imitations of Roman Republic, Eravisci, AR Denarius(18.6mm, 3.31g, 6h), circa 50-20 B.C., mint in modern-day Hungary. Imitating types of C. Postumius. Bust of diana right, bow and quiver on shoulder / Hound running right, spear below. POSTVMI TA(in ligature) in exergue. Freeman 24(this coin), dies 17/P; Davis Class B, Group II Pannonian, Eraviscan E15; cf. Crawford 394/1a for prototype</p><p>Ex Agora 69, 26 September 2017, lot 1, ex RBW Collection, from a hoard partially published in 1998 in &quot;A group of Eraviscan denarii&quot; by Robert Freeman in &quot;Coins of Macedonia and Rome: Essays in Honour of Charles Hersh&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>As always, feel free to share anything relevant![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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