Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 64 28 Nov 2019
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
L. Plautius Plancus AR Denarius. Rome, 47 BC. Head of Medusa facing, with coiled snake on either side; [L•PLAVTI]VS below / Aurora flying right, conducting the four horses of the sun and holding palm frond; PLANCVS below. Crawford 453/1a; CRI 29; RSC Plautia 15a. 3.86g, 18mm, 4h.
Good Very Fine.
From a private UK collection.
In his 'Fasti', Ovid relates that during the censorship of C. Plautius and Ap. Claudius Caecus in 312 BC, the latter quarrelled with the Tibicenes (flute-players) and had them exiled to Tibur. As the people resented their loss, Plautius schemed to bring them back to Rome in the very early morning with their faces covered by masks, an event from his ancestry which the moneyer of this type chose to celebrate on his coinage. Hence, the depiction of Aurora is an allusion to their early morning arrival and the mask of Medusa to the concealment of their faces.
The commemoration of this event was already a part of the yearly calendar of Roman religious festivals with the Quinquatrus Minusculae, celebrated at Rome on the Ides of June, at which the Tibicenes processed through the city to the Temple of Minerva whilst wearing masks.
Good Very Fine.
From a private UK collection.
In his 'Fasti', Ovid relates that during the censorship of C. Plautius and Ap. Claudius Caecus in 312 BC, the latter quarrelled with the Tibicenes (flute-players) and had them exiled to Tibur. As the people resented their loss, Plautius schemed to bring them back to Rome in the very early morning with their faces covered by masks, an event from his ancestry which the moneyer of this type chose to celebrate on his coinage. Hence, the depiction of Aurora is an allusion to their early morning arrival and the mask of Medusa to the concealment of their faces.
The commemoration of this event was already a part of the yearly calendar of Roman religious festivals with the Quinquatrus Minusculae, celebrated at Rome on the Ides of June, at which the Tibicenes processed through the city to the Temple of Minerva whilst wearing masks.