Pre-Long Beach Auction #80

Augustus, with Divus Julius Caesar. Silver Denarius (3.7 g), 27 BC-AD 14. Rome, 17 BC. P. Licinius Stolo, moneyer. AVGVSTVS TR POT, emperor, laureate, wearing short tunic and cloak, on horseback right, holding patera. Reverse P STOLO III VIR, flamen's cap (apex flaminis) between two studded sacred shields (ancilia). RIC 344; BMC 76; RSC 439. Very Rare. Well struck and well centered on a slightly rough flan. Lightly toned. Extremely Fine.

The ancilia was a sacred bronze shield believed to have fallen from heaven during the reign of Numa Pompilius, 715-673 BC, the legendary second king of Rome. His consort, the nymph Egeria, prophesied that wherever the shield was preserved the people would be the dominant people of the world. In order to disguise the identity of the sacred shield, eleven copies were made, and all were carried by the twelve Salian "leaping priests of Mars" during public festivities, especially the Secular Games. The shields were destroyed by fire when the Regia burned in 36 BC, and were reconstructed probably in 17 BC as part of the New Age celebrations that Augustus and Agrippa inaugurated.
Estimated Value $8,000 - 9,000.
Ex Lanz 154 (11 June 2012), 290.