L. Plautius Plancus AR Denarius. Rome, 47 BC. Mask of Medusa facing; L•PLAVTIVS below / Aurora flying to right, head slightly to left, holding reins and leading four rearing horses of the sun; PLANCVS below. Crawford 453/1c; RSC Plautia 14. 3.96g, 19mm, 10h.

Good Extremely Fine; attractive old cabinet tone with golden iridescence on the reverse.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Triton VIII, 11 January 2005, lot 941.

In his 'Fasti', Ovid relates that during the censorship of C. Plautius and Ap. Claudius Caecus in 312 BC, the latter quarrelled with the tibicines (flute-players) and had them exiled to Tibur. As the people resented their loss, Plautius schemed to bring them back to Rome in the very early morning with their faces covered by masks, an event from his ancestry which the moneyer of this type chose to celebrate on his coinage. Hence, the depiction of Aurora is an allusion to their early morning arrival and the mask of Medusa to the concealment of their faces.

The commemoration of this event was already a part of the yearly calendar of Roman religious festivals with the Quinquatrus Minusculae, celebrated at Rome on the Ides of June, at which the tibicines processed through the city to the Temple of Minerva whilst wearing masks.