AUGUSTUS SILVER TETRADRACHM – ISSUE FROM THE YEAR ROME BECAME AN IMPERIAL AUTOCRACY – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED ROMAN PROVINCIAL COIN (Inv. 18429)

$1,100.00

18429. ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC–AD 14. PROVINCIAL ISSUE OF ANTIOCH.
Silver Tetradrachm, 27 mm. Issue of year 29 (Actian era) with consular date XIII (3/2 BC).
Obv. KAIΣAPOΣ ΣEBAΣTOY, laureate head of Augustus right. Rev. ETOYΣ ΝΙΚΗΣ, Tyche seated right on rocky outcropping, holding palm, river god Orontes swimming to right, ΘK (Actian Era date = 29) above; in right field, IΓ (consular date = XIII) above civic monogram (ANTIOXIEΩN?).
Prieur 54; RPC 4155; McAlee 184.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, with nicely struck types, some minor surface roughness.

Thanks to the double–dating of Augustus’ Antiochene tetradrachms by both the Actian Era and the number of the emperor’s consulships it is possible to date this coin more closely than is usual for many ancient coins. Since year 29 of the Actian Era probably ran from October 3 BC to September 2 BC and Augustus is known to have taken up his thirteenth consulship in January 2 BC, the tetradrachm must have been struck between January and September 2 BC. Although it is not noted on this coin, this was an important period for the development of the Roman principate. On 5 February 2 BC, Augustus was hailed Pater Patriae (“Father of the Country”) by the Senate, which concluded the transformation of the republican constitution into an imperial autocracy.