77, Lot: 98. Estimate $150. Sold for $92. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AGRIPPA. Died 12 BC. Æ As (28mm, 10.07 gm). Rome mint. Struck under Gaius (Caligula), 37-41 AD. Head left, wearing rostral crown / Neptune standing left, holding small dolphin and trident; c/m: TI AV. For undertype: RIC I 58 (Gaius); Cohen 3; for c/m: BMCRE pg. xxxv; Grünewald Tafel VIII, 13; Martini 42. VF, dark brown patina, rough.

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa had been a loyal friend of Augustus since boyhood. As naval commander, he was instrumental in overcoming Sextus Pompey; his defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC ended the period of civil war and made Octavian the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Agrippa's non-noble background, however, prevented consideration of him as heir, and it was not until after the death of Augustus' nephew Marcellus and the ensuing turmoil that Augustus persuaded his friend to return from the East and subsequently adopted him as heir. A condition of this adoption was Agrippa's marriage to Augustus' daughter Julia, a union produced several children, including Agrippina Sr., the wife of Germanicus and the mother of the emperor Caligula. Agrippa's death in 12 BC, shifted Augustus' succession hopes thereupon to his young grandsons by Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius Caesars. Julia was then married to Tiberius, the son of Augustus' wife, Livia. To accomplish this, Tiberius was compelled to divorce his then-wife, Vipsania, the daughter of Agrippa. While this match was an apparently genuine love-match, the arranged marriage ended in Tiberius' self-imposed exile at Rhodes and Julia's supposed sexual exploits, which ended in her own exile fourteen years later. Caligula's memorial issue to his maternal grandfather reflects the theme of pietas found in his bronze types, though the literary tradition records that Caligula was uneasy with this connection, owing to Agrippa's non-noble birth and Caligula's own "divinity".