The Only Issue in the Name of Caius Antonius

271, Lot: 31. Estimate $30000. Sold for $80000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Special issues. C. Antonius. January-March 43 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 4.05 g, 8h). Apollonia in Illyricum mint. C · ANTONIVS · M · F · PRO · COS, draped bust of The Genius of Macedonia right, wearing causia / Emblems of the pontificate: two simpula and a securis; PONTIFEX below. Crawford 484/1; CRI 141; Sydenham 1286; RSC 1; A.H. Baldwin Collection (Glendining, 20 November 1969), lot 18 (same dies); UBS 78, lot 1122 (same rev. die). EF, toned. Very rare and of great historical interest.

Property of Princeton Economics acquired by Martin Armstrong. Ex Lanz 92 (4 June 1999), lot 347.

Late in 44 BC, Caius Antonius (the younger brother of Marcus [Mark Antony] and the older brother of Lucius), was granted the office of pronconsul of Macedonia, a territory being occupied by Marcus Junius Brutus. The appointment was soon nullified, however, as a shift in senatorial support gave the proconsulship to Brutus. It would appear that this revocation did little to phase Caius, who proceeded to take his province by force. His efforts did not get him far, and Caius was besieged at Apollonia by Brutus and captured in March after being deserted by his armies. He was treated well for nearly a year - despite Cicero’s repeated warnings to Brutus that he was too dangerous an opponent to live - before being killed in revenge for Mark Antony’s proscription and execution of the great orator.