Publius Cornelius Sulla, bronze as, 23.01 g.

Publius Cornelius Sulla, bronze as, 23.01 g.

Publius Cornelius Sulla

151 BCE

Obverse: Laureate head of Janus; above, mark of value, I.

Reverse: Prow heading right, with female head decorating acroterium; [before, mark of value, I]; above, [P S]VL[A]; below, ROMA.

Style/Period: Roman Republic

The as, a coin in the denarius system, is a smaller-scale version of the aes grave, a large, circular bronze coin used in the middle of the third century BCE. The head of Janus, a popular Roman god of beginnings, and the prow on the reverse were the standard images for the Roman as. The mark I denotes it value as one as. Cornelius followed a tradition begun c. 150 BCE in which minting magistrates would include abbreviations of their names on their coins in order to give fame and prestige to the family name. This Cornelius is thought to have been the uncle of the dictator Sulla. The female head on the reverse could be an image of Venus, a traditional deity of the family of Sulla, to whom the coin is dedicated (see coin C005).
-- Bradford W. Wendel, LU '96

Bibliography: E. Babelon, Description historique et chronologique des monnaies de la republique romaine (Paris and London 1885-1886) Cornelia, 2; H. A. Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum (London 1910), I, 42, no. 347; E. A. Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Republic (London 1952) 15, no. 145; M. H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (London 1974), 156, no. 50/3.

Classics Department Collection. Said to have been found on the Esquiline Hill in 1905

C004

Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890