Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIII 24-25 Mar 2022
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C. Vibius Varus AV Aureus. Rome, 42 BC. Laureate head of Apollo to right / Venus standing to left before column, looking at herself in mirror held in hand; C•VIBIVS upwards to left, VARVS upwards to right. Crawford 494/34; CRI 190; Calicó 33a (same dies); Sydenham 1137; BMCRR Rome 4300; RBW 1738; Biaggi 23.
NGC graded AU 5/5 - 3/5, edge bend (#4883332-001); remarkably high relief and well preserved for the issue.
This coin published in Richard Schaefer's Roman Republican Die Project (RRDP), binder 12, p. 148, available online at: http://numismatics.org/archives/ark:/53695/schaefer.rrdp.b12#schaefer.rrdp.b12_0246 (incorrectly identified as Ex Enrico Caruso Collection, Canessa III, 28 June 1923, lot 130 = CNG Triton III, 835);
Ex Jonathan P. Rosen Collection, Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 108, 16 May 2018, lot 523;
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Auction XXVI, 6 November 1993, lot 420;
Ex Münzen und Medaillen AG, Auction 52, 19 June 1975, lot 447.
The striking laureate portrait of Apollo on this aureus of C. Vibius Varus is remarkably similar to that on the contemporary coinage of P. Clodius (Crawford 494/22-3), pointing towards particular unity among the college of moneyers for 42 BC. The beautiful sculptural reverse type of Venus, the mythical mother of Aeneas and divine progenitor of the gens Julia, can be read as honouring the recently assassinated dictator Julius Caesar and a proclamation of support for his heir, the youthful Octavian. The young triumvir would later on famously adopt Apollo as his patron god: having vowed to dedicate a temple to him in return for his victories against Sextus Pompeius at Naulochus and Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, he consecrated the large Temple of Apollo Palatinus in 28 BC, which he had built within his own property.
NGC graded AU 5/5 - 3/5, edge bend (#4883332-001); remarkably high relief and well preserved for the issue.
This coin published in Richard Schaefer's Roman Republican Die Project (RRDP), binder 12, p. 148, available online at: http://numismatics.org/archives/ark:/53695/schaefer.rrdp.b12#schaefer.rrdp.b12_0246 (incorrectly identified as Ex Enrico Caruso Collection, Canessa III, 28 June 1923, lot 130 = CNG Triton III, 835);
Ex Jonathan P. Rosen Collection, Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 108, 16 May 2018, lot 523;
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Auction XXVI, 6 November 1993, lot 420;
Ex Münzen und Medaillen AG, Auction 52, 19 June 1975, lot 447.
The striking laureate portrait of Apollo on this aureus of C. Vibius Varus is remarkably similar to that on the contemporary coinage of P. Clodius (Crawford 494/22-3), pointing towards particular unity among the college of moneyers for 42 BC. The beautiful sculptural reverse type of Venus, the mythical mother of Aeneas and divine progenitor of the gens Julia, can be read as honouring the recently assassinated dictator Julius Caesar and a proclamation of support for his heir, the youthful Octavian. The young triumvir would later on famously adopt Apollo as his patron god: having vowed to dedicate a temple to him in return for his victories against Sextus Pompeius at Naulochus and Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, he consecrated the large Temple of Apollo Palatinus in 28 BC, which he had built within his own property.