Marc Antony and Octavia Summer-autumn 39 BC. AR Cistophoric Tetradrachm (27mm, 11.66g., 12h), Ephesus, Ionia. M•ANTONIVS•IMP•COS•DESIG•ITER•ET•TERT, head of Antony right, wearing ivy wreath, lituus below; all within wreath of ivy and flowers R/ III•VIR• R•P•C, head of Octavia atop cista mystica, between twisting snakes. RPC I 2201; RSC 2; CRI 262; BMCRR East 133. Good VF
Provenance: Bt D. Miller 1988
Following the death of Octavia's first husband C. Claudius Marcellus in 40 BC, her marriage to Antony sought to seal the Pact of Brundisium in which it had been agreed that Octavian would assume control of the west and Antony of the east. The striking of this type cements the agreement before the people of Ephesus, an important city, later made the capital of Asia Minor by Augustus in 27 BC.
Octavia spent two winters with Antony in Athens and in 37 BC assisted in securing the Triumvirate for another 5 years at the Pact of Tarentum. Following this, Antony returned to the east and, having left Octavia behind, lived with Cleopatra in Egypt. Although they divorced in 32 BC, after Antony's defeat at the Battle of Actium and subsequent suicide, Octavia raised all of his surviving children by Fulvia and Cleopatra, along with her own.
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