Nomos AG
obolos 2 14 June 2015
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P. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, 50 BC. Denarius (Silver, 18mm, 3.90 g 5), Rome. MARCELLINVS Bare head to right of M. Claudius Marcellus, consul in 222; behind, triskeles. Rev. MARCELLVS COS QVINQ M Claudius Marcelllus, togate and veiled, walking to right, carrying a Gallic trophy into the tetrastyle temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Babelon (Cornelia) 69. Crawford 439/1. Sydenham 1147. A lovely example with a life-like portrait and attractive old toning. Minor scratch on the reverse, otherwise, good very fine.
Privately purchased from Spink & Son in 1995.
This coin bears a portrait of one of the great Roman heros of the second Punic War, M. Claudius Marcellus, the general who conquered Syracuse in 211 (thus the triskeles, symbol of Sicily, on the obverse). As the reverse legend tells us, he was consul five times. In 222, during his first consulate, he defeated the Celtic Insubres under their king Britomartis; the reverse of this coin shows him bringing a trophy from that victory into the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, traditionally the first temple to have been built in Rome. The portrait itself could well go back to an image made in the general's lifetime; there was also a statue erected in his honor in the first half of the 2nd century after which the head on the coin could have been based.
Privately purchased from Spink & Son in 1995.
This coin bears a portrait of one of the great Roman heros of the second Punic War, M. Claudius Marcellus, the general who conquered Syracuse in 211 (thus the triskeles, symbol of Sicily, on the obverse). As the reverse legend tells us, he was consul five times. In 222, during his first consulate, he defeated the Celtic Insubres under their king Britomartis; the reverse of this coin shows him bringing a trophy from that victory into the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, traditionally the first temple to have been built in Rome. The portrait itself could well go back to an image made in the general's lifetime; there was also a statue erected in his honor in the first half of the 2nd century after which the head on the coin could have been based.