| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 143 | Auction date: 7 May 2024 |
| Lot number: 378 Price realized: This lot is for sale in an upcoming auction - Bid on this lot  | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: The Dioscuri Collection. The Roman Republic. L. Aemilius Buca. Denarius 44, AR 18 mm, 3.80 g. L·BVCA Diademed head of Venus r. Rev. Sulla reclining on rock l.; on r., Luna descending from mountain and behind, Victory with spread wings holding staff in raised r. hand. Babelon Aemilia 12. Sydenham 1064. Sear Imperators 164. RBW 1677. Crawford 480/1. Extremely rare and in unusually fine condition for the issue. Struck on a very large flan and complete, almost invisible traces of overstriking on obverse, otherwise good extremely fine Ex NAC sale 40, 2007, 575. The reverse of this denarius is famous and controversial. According to one interpretation, it represents Sulla lying asleep and dreaming with the contents of his dream standing around him. Plutarch tells us that before Sulla's infamous march on Rome in 88 BC, "there appeared in his dreams a goddess whom the Romans learned to worship from the Cappadocians, whether she is Luna, or Minerva, or Bellona. This goddess, as Sulla fancied, stood by his side and put into his hand a thunder-bolt, and naming his enemies one by one, bade him smite them with it; and they were all smitten, and fell, and vanished away. Encouraged by the vision, he told it to his colleague, and at break of day led on towards Rome." Luna, clearly identified by a crescent on her forehead, stands before the sleeping figure on the right while Victory stands behind him on the left. Both seem to represent elements of the dream as recorded by Plutarch. However, the use of Sulla's dream as a type by L. Aemilius Buca has been challenged on the grounds that he was an appointee of Julius Caesar and therefore linked to the populares political faction of Rome, while Sulla is thought to have become virtually an emblem of the opposition optimate faction. On the assumption that Sulla's dream was politically inappropriate, the type is instead understood to represent the myth of Endymion, a young Greek shepherd who was beloved by Selene (Roman Luna) that she begged Zeus to permit him to retain his youth and sleep forever so that she could look upon him every night. While this interpretation explains the sleeping figure and the presence of Luna, it does not easily account for Victory. She has little to do with the Endymion myth, but a great deal to do with Sulla. This fact, combined with increasing understanding that the populares and optimates were not the same as modern political parties and lacked unified policies and ideologies, makes it seem more likely that the dream of Sulla is indeed represented here. Estimate: 10000 CHF |  |
