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Auction: 23007 - Ancient Coins Including the 'Kyrios' Collection of Greek Coins and featuring the 'Ostorius' Collection of Roman Gold
Lot: 184

Roman Empire, Augustus (27 BC-AD 14), AR Denarius, Lugdunum, AVGVSTVS DIVI F bald head right, rev. Apollo Citharoedus of Actium standing left, holding plectrum and lyre, IMP-X across fields, ACT in exergue, 3.66g (Cohen 144; BMC 461; RIC 171a; CBN 1397), marked from excavation but well-centred for issue and retaining some lustre among the dark tone, a bolder very fine

Apollo was Augustus' god. Augustus had always made it very clear that Apollo was his particular patron clearly wanting to be identified with Apollo to a degree. He even went so far as to plant laurel trees outside his house and purportedly even on occasion dressing as the god. His first major building project in Rome (started 36 BC) was to build the first temple of Apollo within the pomerium. This temple perhaps was the most significant of all of Augustus' building projects. Built next to his house on the Palatine hill and often used to host sessions of the senate, Augustus' temple was placed at the very centre of civic life even receiving mentions by Virgil, Tibullus and Horace.


With this strong personal connexion to the god, it was fortuitous, or rather fated (as Augustus portrayed it), that his most important victory at Actium in September 31 BC occurred at the site of a sanctuary of Apollo. The sanctuary of Apollo Actius was an old sanctuary dating to a time before the Corithian colonists settled at Actium. Its presence overlooking the battle was of course a total coincidence, however, it was clear proof to Augustus that providence was on his side. After the battle, he made much of this carefully restoring and expanding the sanctuary as well as completing and dedicating his own temple of Apollo Palatinus. Coins like this one were no mere passive invocation to the god, but with ACT crucially inscribed in exergue on the reverse it helped make Augustus' new regime seem part of some grand divine plan.


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Estimate
£300 to £400

Starting price
£280