Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIII 24-25 Mar 2022
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Augustus AR Denarius. Rome, 19 BC. M. Durmius, triumvir monetalis. CAESAR AVGVSTVS, bare head to right / M DVRMIVS III VIR, man-faced bull walking to right, crowned by victory flying above. RIC I 319; CBN 219 (same reverse die); BMCRE 66-7; RSC 432; Simonetti, CNR II 201. 3.79g, 20mm, 4h.
Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare; among the finest known examples of the type.
From a private European collection.
The remarkable tauriform reverse type of this extremely rare issue is obviously inspired by the Neapolis didrachms of the 3rd century BC (cf. HN Italy 603-4), which celebrated either the local river god Sebethos or Achelous, the great river god of the Greek world and father of the Sirens, whose sanctuary was on the northern side of the Sorrentine peninsular. Another parallel issue also by M. Durmius, depicts another well known Greek reverse type, this time the lion attacking a stag type (RIC 318) imitating the Velian stater reverse type (HN Italy 1316-9).
The often repeated theory that the reverse celebrates the Campanian origins of the gens Durmia is without foundation. Triumvir monetalis Durmius may be also the namesake, along with C. Caelius, recorded in an inscription from Tusculum as Consul suffectus in 4 BC (Archeologia Classica 1951, p. 71), but is otherwise unknown to history. What is certain is that M. Durmius was member of the collegium of the tresviri monetalis in 19 BC, at a time of intense mint activity. This was the year of the return of Augustus to Rome with the lost standards and prisoners from the Parthian war, the instigation of a program of cultural renewal and the harbinger of a new Golden Age of the nascent Roman Empire.
A more plausible explanation for this Neapolitan revival is that the Greek reverse types reflect Augustus' interest in old coins; according to Seutonius he gave "coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money" as Saturnalia gifts (Lives of the Twelve Caesars, 75). Another interesting and possibly allied theory, reputably proposed by Andrew Burnett in RIC (p. 64 n. 318-9), is that these types may reflect the discovery of an earlier large hoard of staters from Neapolis and Velia, which would certainly have attracted the antiquarian interest of contemporary intellectuals. Many such hoards have been well documented from Campania, Lucania and Calabria in IGCH pp. 285- 306.
Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare; among the finest known examples of the type.
From a private European collection.
The remarkable tauriform reverse type of this extremely rare issue is obviously inspired by the Neapolis didrachms of the 3rd century BC (cf. HN Italy 603-4), which celebrated either the local river god Sebethos or Achelous, the great river god of the Greek world and father of the Sirens, whose sanctuary was on the northern side of the Sorrentine peninsular. Another parallel issue also by M. Durmius, depicts another well known Greek reverse type, this time the lion attacking a stag type (RIC 318) imitating the Velian stater reverse type (HN Italy 1316-9).
The often repeated theory that the reverse celebrates the Campanian origins of the gens Durmia is without foundation. Triumvir monetalis Durmius may be also the namesake, along with C. Caelius, recorded in an inscription from Tusculum as Consul suffectus in 4 BC (Archeologia Classica 1951, p. 71), but is otherwise unknown to history. What is certain is that M. Durmius was member of the collegium of the tresviri monetalis in 19 BC, at a time of intense mint activity. This was the year of the return of Augustus to Rome with the lost standards and prisoners from the Parthian war, the instigation of a program of cultural renewal and the harbinger of a new Golden Age of the nascent Roman Empire.
A more plausible explanation for this Neapolitan revival is that the Greek reverse types reflect Augustus' interest in old coins; according to Seutonius he gave "coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money" as Saturnalia gifts (Lives of the Twelve Caesars, 75). Another interesting and possibly allied theory, reputably proposed by Andrew Burnett in RIC (p. 64 n. 318-9), is that these types may reflect the discovery of an earlier large hoard of staters from Neapolis and Velia, which would certainly have attracted the antiquarian interest of contemporary intellectuals. Many such hoards have been well documented from Campania, Lucania and Calabria in IGCH pp. 285- 306.