Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction X 27 September 2015
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L. Plautius Plancus AR Denarius. Rome, 47 BC. Head of Medusa, facing, with coiled snake on either side, L. PLAVTIVS below / Victory facing, holding palm and leading four horses, PLANCVS below. Crawford 453/1a; Sydenham 959. 3.79g, 19mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine. Attractive lustre and golden toning.
From the Ambrose Collection.
This moneyer was the brother of L. Munatius but was adopted into the Plautia gens. Ovid relates that during the censorship of C. Plautius and Ap. Claudius Caecus in 312 BC, the latter quarrelled with the tibicenes, who retired to Tibur. As the people resented their loss, Plautius caused them to be placed in wagons and conveyed back to Rome early in the morning, and in order that they should not be recognised their faces were covered with masks. The chariot of Aurora is an allusion to their early arrival and the mask to the concealment of their faces. In commemoration of this event the Quinquatrus Minusculae were celebrated yearly at Rome on the 13th June, at which those who took part in them wore masks.
Extremely Fine. Attractive lustre and golden toning.
From the Ambrose Collection.
This moneyer was the brother of L. Munatius but was adopted into the Plautia gens. Ovid relates that during the censorship of C. Plautius and Ap. Claudius Caecus in 312 BC, the latter quarrelled with the tibicenes, who retired to Tibur. As the people resented their loss, Plautius caused them to be placed in wagons and conveyed back to Rome early in the morning, and in order that they should not be recognised their faces were covered with masks. The chariot of Aurora is an allusion to their early arrival and the mask to the concealment of their faces. In commemoration of this event the Quinquatrus Minusculae were celebrated yearly at Rome on the 13th June, at which those who took part in them wore masks.