VESPASIAN SILVER DENARIUS – MYTH OF THE LAVINIUM SOW – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 19760)

$1,250.00

19760. ROMAN EMPIRE. VESPASIAN, AD 69-79.
Silver Denarius, 3.52 g, 16 mm. Issue of Rome AD 77-78.
Obv. VESPASIANVS AVG CAESAR, laureate head of Vespasian right. Rev. IMP XIX, sow left, accompanied by 3 piglets.
RIC II.1, 982.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5.

The reverse of this denarius depicts a sow with three piglets, which is thought to have been artistic shorthand for the white sow and litter of 30 piglets that indicated where Trojan hero Aeneas should found the new city of Lavinium in central Italy. According to Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas had brought a pregnant sow with him to sacrifice when he landed in Italy after a long sojourn at Carthage, but it escaped and gave birth to its litter beneath an oak tree. He was advised in a dream that when he found the animals, he should build his city on the site. The 30 piglets were said to foretell that 30 years later, Aeneas’s son Ascanius would found the city of Alba Longa. Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, ultimately descended from the kings of this city. Vespasian’s reference to the sow on his coinage may perhaps allude to his building program in Rome after the Civil War of AD 69, which gave him the character of a second founder, following in the footsteps of Aeneas, Ascanius, and Romulus.