Lucius Sestius and Gaius Norbanus. Aureus 44-43 BC, uncertain mint. Draped bust of Africa right, wearing elephant’s skin / L · CESTIVS Helmet on a curule chair. On left, S · C and, on right, PR. In exergue, C · NORBA. 8,12g. Bahrfeldt 24; Biaggi 24; Calicó 3; Chastel 341; Crawford 491/1a; Sear 11; Sydenham 1153. Extremely fine. Provenance: Stack’s Bowers & Ponterio (11 January 2013), 5419. Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. This aureus was also struck in the context of the brief civil war at Mutina, which pitted Mark Antony against Decimus Junius Brutus, who was supported by the Senate and Octavian. It was also probably struck using gold from the public treasury seized by Octavian in 43 BC to pay his army. His forces numbered at least eight legions, or around 40,000 men, and two of these legions had come from Africa, which may explain the personification of Africa on the obverse. As was often the case in antiquity, Africa is represented through its characteristic fauna: here, an elephant, a symbol of strength. On the reverse, the presence of the Corinthian helmet is more puzzling. Sear suggested that it might be a reference to Minerva, the goddess of war, which would seem plausible given the military context in which the coin was struck. The two curule chairs may allude to the Mutina campaign, during which the two consuls, Aulus Hirtius and Caius Vibius Pansa, were killed, leaving their curule seats vacant. It is tempting, although impossible to state with certainty, to interpret the reverse as a kind of political metaphor: war, symbolized by Minerva’s helmet, has claimed the lives of the two consuls, leaving their seats vacant for the return of Octavian and for the man with whom he was rapidly moving toward an alliance: Mark Antony.