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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jay GT4, post: 3006872, member: 88526&quot;]I think the Vespasian snakes are called Cysta Mystica because they copy&nbsp; earlier eastern&nbsp; tetradrachms that are Cista Mystica depictions. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]745169[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Marcus Antonius AR Cistophorus</b></p><p>Bowcase flanked by two serpents, heads confronted, monogram above, serpent twined around thyrsus to right, Q to left.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cista mystica with serpent, all within ivy wreath</p><p><br /></p><p>Pergamum</p><p>Ca. 133-56 BC.</p><p><br /></p><p>BMC Ionia 176 (under M. Antonius M.f.)</p><p><br /></p><p>12.34 g</p><p><br /></p><p>These &quot;anonymous&quot; issues were struck in Pergamum by Roman Quaestors between ca. 100-56 BC. They are called anonymous because the monograms are not easily identifiable. This issue is commonly attributed to be either Mark Antony or his brother Lucius Antony who both served as Quaestors in the east. However it is more likely that the Quaestor was in fact Marcus Antonius the orator who was Marcus and Lucius Grandfather. He served as Consul in 99 BC and as a Quaestor in Asia in 113/112 BC</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]745170[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Antony &amp; Octavia tetradrachm</b></p><p>M ANTONIVS IMP COS DESIG ITER ET TERT</p><p>Conjoined heads of Antony and Octavia right, Antony wearing an ivy wreath</p><p><br /></p><p>VIR RPC</p><p>Dionysus standing left, holding cantharus and thyrsus on cista mystica flanked by two interlaced snakes</p><p><br /></p><p>Ephesus, summer-autumn 39 BC</p><p><br /></p><p>11.22g</p><p><br /></p><p>Imperators 263, RPC 2202, Babelon Antonia 61, Syndenham 1198, BMCRR east 135</p><p><br /></p><p>Punch mark on the obverse protrudes onto the reverse</p><p><br /></p><p>Ex-Numisantique</p><p><br /></p><p>This series of Cistophori from Asia commemorates the marriage of Antony and Octavia and celebrate&#039;s Antony&#039;s divine status in the east as the &quot;New Dionysus&quot; which was bestowed on him when he arrived in Ephesus in 41 BC. Antony&#039;s titulature of &quot;Imperator and Consul designate for the second and third times&quot; fixes the period of issue to the latter part of 39 BC after the Pact of Misenum in July and before Antony&#039;s second Imperatorial acclamation in the winter of 39-38BC[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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