Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 80 4 Feb 2021
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Augustus AR Denarius. Samos or Pergamum(?), 21-20 BC. CAESAR, bare head to right / AVGVSTVS, bull standing to right. RIC I 475 (Samos?); BMCRE 663 (uncertain mint in the East); RSC 28; Sutherland, "L'attribution des deniers augustéens aux types du temple, de la couronne et du jeune taureau" in RN 1974, 61f; BN 943 (Pergamum). 3.59g, 19mm, 12h.
Very Fine; minor flan crack at 3/8h, small scrape on rev., deeply toned. Fine style.
From the inventory of a European dealer.
Among the first coins to be struck bearing the new title Augustus, this denarius is of exceptional style and engraved with beautiful craftsmanship. The reverse type remains an enigma with scholarship as yet unable to settle on a definitive meaning, though various suggestions have been posed.
Firstly, perhaps the bull is based on Myron's bronze heifer, a statue much admired in antiquity and of which Augustus must have been aware: he is known to have restored Myron's Apollo, which Marc Antony had taken, to Ephesus. However, an alternative statue has been proposed by Sutherland in RIC to be the basis for this reverse type. He links this issue with Augustus' visit to Samos in winter 21/20 BC, where he would likely have seen a statue of Poseidon Taureos in the sanctuary, an event he later commemorated on the coinage.
More personal to Augustus himself is the theory that what we see here is a reference to the famous 'butting bull' type seen on the coinage of Thurium. Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus in celebration of his father's victory in battle against a Spartacist army, which took place outside the town, this reverse type would be a personal allegory to Augustus and the high regard in which his family was held by the townspeople of Thurium.
Very Fine; minor flan crack at 3/8h, small scrape on rev., deeply toned. Fine style.
From the inventory of a European dealer.
Among the first coins to be struck bearing the new title Augustus, this denarius is of exceptional style and engraved with beautiful craftsmanship. The reverse type remains an enigma with scholarship as yet unable to settle on a definitive meaning, though various suggestions have been posed.
Firstly, perhaps the bull is based on Myron's bronze heifer, a statue much admired in antiquity and of which Augustus must have been aware: he is known to have restored Myron's Apollo, which Marc Antony had taken, to Ephesus. However, an alternative statue has been proposed by Sutherland in RIC to be the basis for this reverse type. He links this issue with Augustus' visit to Samos in winter 21/20 BC, where he would likely have seen a statue of Poseidon Taureos in the sanctuary, an event he later commemorated on the coinage.
More personal to Augustus himself is the theory that what we see here is a reference to the famous 'butting bull' type seen on the coinage of Thurium. Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus in celebration of his father's victory in battle against a Spartacist army, which took place outside the town, this reverse type would be a personal allegory to Augustus and the high regard in which his family was held by the townspeople of Thurium.