Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIV 21 Sep 2017
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L. Manlius Torquatus AR Denarius. Rome, 65 BC. Ivy-wreathed head of Sybil right; SIBYLLA below neck truncation / Tripod, on which stands amphora flanked by two stars; L•TORQVAT downwards to left, III•VIR upwards to right, all within torque. Crawford 411/1b; RSC Manlia 12. 3.95g, 18mm, 5h.
Good Extremely Fine. A superb example of the type, with a deep old cabinet tone.
Destroyed during the civil wars under the dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 83 BC, the rebuilt Temple of Jupiter in Rome was dedicated in 69 BC, though some literary sources report that it was not until the late 60's that work was actually finished. The Sibylline Books, volumes of prophecies purchased by the last king of Rome and consulted only in times of emergency, had also been lost in the destruction. Keen to replace them the Senate sent envoys in 76 to collect similar oracular sayings from all over the known world.
Lucius Manlius Torquatus had become consul with Lucius Aurelius Cotta only after having had the consuls-elect for 65 BC condemned for bribery, one of whom was the nephew of the dictator Sulla. The types chosen for this denarius, readily recognisable to the citizens of Rome, would have brought to mind the dictatorship of Sulla and the scandal of the elections and placed Torquatus as the saviour of Rome against such men, for the torque that surrounds the reverse type humorously recalls his famous ancestor from whom the family agnomen stemmed.
Good Extremely Fine. A superb example of the type, with a deep old cabinet tone.
Destroyed during the civil wars under the dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 83 BC, the rebuilt Temple of Jupiter in Rome was dedicated in 69 BC, though some literary sources report that it was not until the late 60's that work was actually finished. The Sibylline Books, volumes of prophecies purchased by the last king of Rome and consulted only in times of emergency, had also been lost in the destruction. Keen to replace them the Senate sent envoys in 76 to collect similar oracular sayings from all over the known world.
Lucius Manlius Torquatus had become consul with Lucius Aurelius Cotta only after having had the consuls-elect for 65 BC condemned for bribery, one of whom was the nephew of the dictator Sulla. The types chosen for this denarius, readily recognisable to the citizens of Rome, would have brought to mind the dictatorship of Sulla and the scandal of the elections and placed Torquatus as the saviour of Rome against such men, for the torque that surrounds the reverse type humorously recalls his famous ancestor from whom the family agnomen stemmed.