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Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Live Auction 6  25 Mar 2023
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Lot 18

Estimate: 2000 GBP
Price realized: 1700 GBP
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Q. Hortensius Hortalus Æ 25mm of Cassandrea or Dium, Macedon. Struck as Proconsul, circa 43-42 BC. Q HORTENSI PRO • COS, bare head to right / PRAEF COLONI • DEDVC, ox yoke, plough and measuring rod(?) with vexillum. S. Kremydi-Sicilianou, The Coinage of the Roman Colony of Dion, Biblioteca 4 of the Hellenic Numismatic Society, Athens 1996, p. 257, 1-8 and pl. 32 = RPC I 1509; FITA, p. 33. 13.91g, 25mm, 12h.

Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare.

This coin published at Roman Provincial Coinage Online (rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk);
From the collection of a Romanophile;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XXI, 24 March 2021, lot 371 (hammer: £2,600);

A son of the famous orator of the same name, Quintus Hortensius was appointed proconsul of Macedonia by Caesar in January 44 BC. Caesar was assassinated in March, and a few months later, just as Hortensius was about to retire, the Civil War broke out and he went over to Brutus and the Republican party with the offer of military help. The Senate was obliged to accept Brutus once again as proconsul, but after the battle of Philippi in 42 BC Hortensius was executed.

During his stay in Macedonia Hortensius struck an issue of bronze coins in three denominations, and the coins confirm that he was appointed 'praefectus coloniae deducendae' of a military colony the name of which is not mentioned - it was either at port of Kassanderia (Cassandreia) or the ancient shrine of Dion (Dium) in Macedonia where several examples have been found in official excavations and published by Kremydi-Sicilianou, op. cit., pp. 285-6.
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