Marc Antony, as Triumvir (44-30 BC), with Lucius Antonius. AR denarius (20mm, 3.53 gm, 10h). NGC Fine 4/5 - 2/5. Military mint in Greece or Asia Minor, 41 BC, M. Cocceius Nerva, quaestor pro praetore. M•ANT•IMP•AVG•III•VIR•R• P•C•M•NERVA PROQ•P (ligates), bare head of Marc Antony right; dotted border / L•ANTONIVS-COS, bare head of Lucius Antonius right; dotted border. Crawford 517/5a. Sydenham 1185. Antonia 48 and Cocceia 2. Younger brother of Marc Antony, Lucius Antonius "Pietas" naturally backed his brother's leadership of the Caesarian party and his attempt to seize control of the state, but both ambitions were complicated by the arrival of Caesar's adoptive son Octavian. Relations between the brothers and Octavian cooled markedly after the final defeat of Caesar's assassins in 42 BC. The cold war escalated when Lucius Antony became consul in 41 BC and took a notably hostile stance toward Octavian. He was joined in this propaganda war by Marc Antony's wife, the fiery Fulvia, and the two began rousing Italian cities against Octavian's plan to settle 100,000 of his veterans on land confiscated from Italian citizens. Octavian reacted quickly and recalled his friend Agrippa from Spain at the head of several veteran legions, which besieged Lucius Antony and Fulvia in the town of Perusia. When Lucius and Fulvia surrendered in February, 40 BC, Marc Antony washed his hands of the fiasco and hung his wife and brother out to dry. Both Lucius and Fulvia conveniently died later in 40 BC, supposedly of natural causes. This rare denarius, which bears the portraits of both Antony brothers, was struck at an unknown eastern mint under the control of Marc Antony.

HID09801242017

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