Popular Gladitorial Type

276, Lot: 345. Estimate $100. Sold for $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Moneyer issues of Imperatorial Rome. L. Livineius Regulus. 42 BC. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.54 g, 11h). Rome mint. Head of the praetor L. Livineius Regulus right / Gladiator in foreground spearing lion, another behind him spearing a panther, a wounded bear to upper left. Crawford 494/30; CRI 179; Sydenham 1112; Livineia 12. VF, porous with a few scratches.

The type represent the responsibility of the praefectus urbi to provide public entertainment in the form of gladiatorial games. The wounded animal awaiting the attentions of the gladiators is usually identified as a boar, but the general view of better specimens suggests it is probably a bear. Pliny relates that Caesar inaugurated bear fights, the speciality of the Thessalians, in Rome.