Faustus Cornelius Sulla. Denarius, Rome, 56 BC

Faustus Cornelius Sulla. Denarius, Rome, 56 BC. AR, 4.05 g, 19.3 mm, 6 h.

Obv. Laureate, diademed and draped bust of Venus right; behind, sceptre and S·C.

Rev. Three military trophies set side by side between a capis and a lituus; in exergue, monogram FAVSTVS.

Refs: Crawford 426/3; Babelon Cornelia 63; Sydenham 884.

This issue was struck by Faustus Cornelius Sulla, son of the dictator Sulla, while serving as monetalis in 56 BC. The obverse portrait of Venus alludes directly to his family’s claimed descent from the goddess through Aeneas and Iulus, a proud boast that placed the Cornelii Sullae alongside the Iulii in tracing divine ancestry. The sceptre and S·C symbol reinforce authority and senatorial sanction.

The reverse proclaims the military glories of his father, with three trophies commemorating Sulla’s victories in Greece and Asia. The priestly implements, capis and lituus, stress Faustus’ own religious office and provide an additional note of legitimacy through augural and pontifical tradition. In the fraught political environment of the late Republic, such iconography asserted dynastic prestige and recalled Sulla’s restoration of the Republic a generation earlier, at a time when Pompey and Crassus were asserting their dominance in Roman politics.

Ex Monnaies et Medailles. Vente Publique 61. October 7-8, 1982, Lot 302