Series: Imperatorial – Mark Antony
Reference: Crawford 517/2

Gens and moneyer: Antonia / Barbatia - Mark Antony / Marcus Barbatius Pollio
Year and mint: 41 BC - ?
Obverse: Bust of Mark Antony, right. Border of dots. M ANT IMP AVG III VIR R P C M BARBAT Q P
Reverse: Head of Octavian, right, bearded. Border of dots. CAESAR IMP PONT III VIR R P C

Grade: EF- 3.99 g - 12h
Provenance: French coin fair, 2026

Comment:
The gens Antonia was a Roman family of plebeian origin that attained great prominence during the final century of the Republic thanks to Mark Antony, Julius Caesar’s right-hand man and later a member of the Second Triumvirate. The gens Barbatia, by contrast, is scarcely known; its representative on this issue was Marcus Barbatius Pollio, whose initials appear in the legend as the official responsible for the coinage.

Following the two battles of Philippi in October 42 BC, in which Cassius and Brutus took their own lives, the Republican cause was extinguished. Power passed definitively to the Second Triumvirate, whose members divided the provinces among themselves: the East for Antony, the West for Octavian and Africa for Lepidus. The victory was presented as a shared triumph, although tensions between Antony and Octavian would soon become inevitable.

Against this background, in the summer of 41 BC, Mark Antony minted a denarius at Ephesus that projected an image of triumviral harmony. The obverse bears the portrait of Mark Antony, accompanied by his titles of Imperator, Augur and Triumvir. The reverse depicts the bust of Octavian with the titles Caesar, Imperator, Pontiff and Triumvir. The design conveyed a message of unity and shared legitimacy: both men were presented as Caesar’s heirs, supported by the victory at Philippi and by the highest military and religious titles.

The coin is, in fact, a work of political propaganda. Beneath the appearance of harmony, the rivalry between the two young leaders was already taking shape, but at that moment it was essential to display their alliance in order to stabilise their power and justify the authority of the Triumvirate before Rome and the provinces.