Q. Pompeius Rufus (ca. 54 BC). AR denarius (18mm, 3.86 gm, 5h). NGC VF 4/5 - 4/5. Rome. SVLLA•COS, head of the dictator Sulla right, the moneyer's maternal grandfather / Q•POM•RVFI-RVFVS•COS, head of Q. Pompeius Rufus right, the moneyer's paternal grandfather. Crawford 434/1. Sydenham 908. Pompeia 4 and Cornelia 48. From the Bacchus Collection The career of Lucius Cornelius Sulla served as a paradigm for the Roman imperators and emperors who came after him. Born in 138 BC to a prestigious but penniless patrician family, he joined the army and served under Marius in Africa, where he gained notoriety by engineering the capture of the rebel leader Jugurtha. He later served as a general in the Social War and won great popularity among the soldiery for his luck and pluck in battle (he later adopted the surname Fe"lucky"). Marriage to a wealthy woman, who conveniently died and left him an enormous legacy, helped launch his political career, which saw him reach the consulship in 88 BC. He obtained a coveted command against Mithradates of Pontus, which promised to reap a great deal of loot, but was outmaneuvered by his old mentor Marius, who had himself assigned to lead the expedition. Sulla refused to hand over his troops and instead led them in an assault on Rome itself, an unprecedented act. After a quick purge of political opponents, Sulla departed for the east to fight Mithridates, but Marius and the exiles soon returned and fought their way back to power. Sulla had to break off his Mithridatic campaign to return to Italy, where he again seized Rome and named himself dictator. He undertook savage reprisals against his enemies and stuffed his purse with their possessions. He ruled absolutely for three years, during which he rammed through a body of conservative laws intended to protect the power of aristocrats and keep the plebians down. This accomplished, he resigned the dictatorship in 79 BC and retired to a life of profound hedonistic decadence, from which he died less than a year later. His gaunt portrait appears on this denarius of his ancestor Q. Pompeius Rufus, backed by the head of an earlier, less controversial consul of the same name.

HID09801242017

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