250 | Roman Republic

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POMPEY, the Great. Denarius. (Ar. 3.78g/19mm). 46-45 BC Hispania. (FFC 1; Crawford 469a). Obv: Head of Pallas to right, around legend: M POBLICI LEG PRO PR, all within dots and dashes. Rev: Pompey standing left, with one foot on the prow of a ship, giving a palm to Baetica standing right with a shield and two javelins, around legend: CN MAGNVS IMP. Almost Uncirculated. Reverse mint vain. Nice and rare specimen.

During the two years (47-45 BC) that he was in Hispania, Gnaeus Pompey Jr., eldest son of Gnaeus Pompey the Great, minted two series of silver denarii (RRC 469-470) and one of bronze aces (RRC 471), all them in the framework of the civil war that pitted C. Julius Caesar against the Senate. These denarii have different variants depending on the reverse: some have points and beads as a pattern, while others have only points. There are authors who have also wanted to see stylistic differences in them, differentiating between a beautiful style and a crude style in these coinages. But the variants do not end here, Villaronga and Benages cite differences in the legends and even, returning to the iconography, there are authors for whom the image represented on the obverse is Pallas while for others it is Rome. García-Bellido considers that the female figure would be, due to her majestic posture, the personification of a divinity and not of a city or province as in other cases, because she does not go or kneel before the emperor who receives the homage.