DR-296 | Crawford: 317/2
Lucius Appuleius Saturnoinus
Lucius Appuleius Saturnoinus

Gens: Appuleia
Moneyer: Lucius Appuleius Saturnoinus
Date and mint: 104 BC - Rome


Obverse: Saturn in quadriga, right, holding reins in left hand and harp in right hand. Dotted border.
Legend: ROMA
Symbols: Reverse below, control mark

Reverse: Saturn in quadriga, right, reins in left hand and Harpaen right. Dotted border.
Legend: L SATVRN

Comment: The denarius of Lucius Apuleius Saturninus, minted in Rome in the year 104 BC, belongs to the Appuleia gens, a family that did not have great political weight except for this character, who would soon achieve notoriety. Saturninus was quaestor of grain in Ostia and shortly after tribune of the plebs in 103 and 100 BC, where he led a popular program that ended with his death in that same year 100.

The broadcast takes place at a time of crisis after the defeat of Arausius in 105 BC. and in full reorganization of the army under Marius. At the same time, the supply of wheat in Rome was a crucial issue, and the figure of Saturn, god of agriculture, was directly linked to the responsibilities of the magistrate himself.

The most striking thing about this series is the way in which Saturnino breaks moneyer conventions. In the first type (Crawford 317/1) the head of Roma appears on both the obverse and the reverse, something totally unusual and which must be understood as a deliberate assertion of the city's authority. In the second type (Crawford 317/2) the same resource is applied with Saturn, which occupies the obverse and reverse in a clear allusion to the name of the magistrate, Saturninus, in an evident nomen loquens. The following types (Crawford 317/3a and 317/3b) take up the canonical formula of Roma on the obverse and Saturn on the reverse, although they multiply the control marks, which indicates a high-volume mintage.

It is therefore not a mistake, but rather a very calculated propaganda program. Saturninus used the duplication of motifs to highlight first Roma, then Saturn and finally the union of both, linking his figure with the tradition of the Republic and at the same time with the divinity that his own name evoked.

Provenance: Numismatica Ars Classica (2024)
Price: 5,650 €