Classical Numismatic Group, LLC - Triton XXVI - Session 3 . 844
Roman Imperial
Category
Constantius I. As Caesar, AD 293-305. AV Aureus (18mm, 5.55 g, 5ah). Carthago (Carthage) mint. Struck AD 297-298. CONSTAN TIVS CAES, laureate head right / FELIX AD V ENT AVGG NN, Africa, wearing long drapery, wearing elephant-skin headdress, standing facing, head left, holding signum in right hand and elephant tusk in left; at feet to left, lion with captured bull; PK. RIC VI 2a (same dies as illustration); Depeyrot 1/2; Calicó 4825; Franz Trau Collection (Gilhofer & Ranschburg), lot 3536 (same dies). Lustrous. NGC photo certificate 6556307-002, graded MS★, Strike: 5/5, Surface: 4/5. Extremely rare, such that the type is illustrated in Calicó by only a line drawing. Although Carthage had been destroyed following the Third Punic War (149-146 BC), by the first century BC, a new city had been built upon its ruins. In later centuries, Carthage became the third most populous city of the Empire and a major exporter of grain to Rome. During the Tetrarchy, a confederation of Moorish tribes threatened to overrun Roman Africa, drawing a quick response from Maximianus, who moved a substantial army to Carthage and campaigned for over a year to defeat them. The presence of so many soldiers required the opening of a mint to pay them, and the first coins of the Carthage mint are dated to AD 296. This extremely rare aureus, struck in the name of the western Caesar Constantius I Chlorus, depicts the personified province of Africa on the reverse, wearing a distinctive elephant-skin headdress. The lion subduing a bull at her feet surely represents Rome defeating the Moors.
Description
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Grade
EUR
Starting
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Estimate
EUR
Realized