Lucius Sestius and Gaius Norbanus. Aureus 44-43 BC, Rome. C · NORBANVS - L· CESTIVS Draped bust of Venus right. In field right, PR / Cybele holding patera in right hand, in biga left drawn by two lions, S · C above. 8,09g. Bahrfeldt 26; Biaggi 25; Calicó 5; Crawford 491/2; Sydenham 1155. Extremely fine. Provenance: Leu 72 (12 May 1998), 398. Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Following the assassination of Julius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC, Mark Antony initially appeared to be Caesar’s natural heir. He had accompanied Caesar throughout his military campaigns and was widely regarded as his right-hand man. However, the reading of Caesar’s will on 20 March came as a surprise: Caesar had posthumously adopted his great-nephew Octavian, making him his principal heir. Mark Antony therefore found himself facing a powerful new rival and attempted to undermine Octavian politically. Octavian responded by forming an alliance with Cicero and the Senate. Meanwhile, Mark Antony launched a military campaign against Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, a former ally of Caesar who had taken part in his assassination. Brutus refused to submit to Mark Antony and withdrew to Mutina, where Antony besieged him. Allied with the Senate, Octavian thus found himself in the absurd position of having to help defend one of Caesar’s assassins in order to oppose Mark Antony. Mark Antony was eventually defeated, but despite this military success, Octavian became increasingly isolated within the Senate. He therefore moved closer to Mark Antony, broke with Cicero, and in November 43 BC this rapprochement culminated in the creation of the Second Triumvirate, which divided power between Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus. Thus began the collaboration between two of Rome’s future dominant figures. Together, they would eventually defeat the assassins of Caesar. It was in this turbulent context that this rare aureus was struck by Lucius Cestius and Gaius Norbanus, two supporters of Octavian who had been elected praetors for 43 BC. In that same year, Octavian entered Rome and seized the public treasury, using it to strike these remarkable aurei in order to pay his army. The coin is therefore particularly fascinating: it was issued at the very beginning of the civil wars, at a moment when the later binary confrontation between the Caesarians and Caesar’s assassins had not yet fully taken shape. Instead, it belongs to an earlier stage of the conflict—the struggle among Caesar’s former allies over who would emerge as the leader of the Caesarian faction and ultimately inherit Caesar’s political legacy. In this sense, this rare aureus reflects the early political career of Octavian. The female figure on the obverse is probably Venus, from whom Octavian claimed descent and whose protection he sought to emphasize. However, some scholars believe that the figure could instead be the Cumaean Sibyl, a legendary prophetess whose predictions, recorded in three books kept at the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, were consulted in times of crisis. During the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), these prophecies were consulted and were said to have recommended the establishment at Rome of a cult dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele, who is represented on the reverse. This interpretation seems plausible, especially considering Octavian’s political position at the time. He was still seeking support within the Senate and had not yet openly turned against Caesar’s assassins. It would therefore have been politically unwise for him to display on his coinage such an explicit Caesarian symbol as Venus.