55, Lot: 99. Estimate $150. Sold for $131. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SEXTUS POMPEY. Æ As (20.59 gm). Mint in Sicily. Circa 43-36 BC. Laureate head of Janus with "juvenile" features, MAGN above / Prow of galley right, PIVS above, IMP below. Martini, Sextus Pompeius, 874 (same obverse die). Near VF. Green-brown patina. ($150)

After the defeat of his father and brother by Julius Caesar, Sextus Pompey set up shop in Sicily and carried on as a pirate king, raiding Roman commerce and making a nuisance of himself to Octavian, Caesar's successor as ruler of Italy. Repeated attempts by Octavian to corral Sextus failed ignominiously, once nearly costing Octavian his life. In 39 BC, Sextus entered into a power-sharing agreement with Octavian and his fellow Triumvirs, Mark Antony and Lepidus. But he continued to serve as a magnet for Senatorial resistance and disaffection, so Octavian renewed hostilities the following year. The brilliant admiral Agrippa finally defeated Sextus at Naulochos in 36 BC, but he escaped, fleeing to Antony, who kept him alive as a bargaining chip for awhile, then executed him. The as coinage in the name of Pompey the Great is catelogued sequentially by Martini according to the obverse bust. First a traditional head of Janus, then a janiform head of Pompey the Great, followed by successive series of “mature” and “juvenile” imitative portraits. He attributes the “juvenile” heads to Sicily under Pompey’s son Sextus. They are probably portraits of Sextus, the last surviving supporter of his father’s party in the civil war.