Mark Antony, 44-30 BC. Denarius (Silver, 18 mm, 3.86 g, 6 h), military mint moving with Mark Antony (Patrae?), 32-31. ANT•AVG - III VIR•R•P•C Galley right, with scepter tied with fillet on prow.
Rev. LEG XXII Aquila between two signa. Babelon (Antonia) 137. Crawford 544/38. RBW -. CRI 382. Sydenham 1245. Sharply struck, lustrous and very well centered, an exceptional example. Tiny marks
, otherwise, virtually as struck.
From a European collection, formed before 2005.
The twenty-second was another obscure Antonian legion which ceased to exist after Actium, with the surviving soldiers either being disbanded, or dispersed among other legions. Octavian's Legio XXII Deiotariana, on the other hand, was first created in 47 BC by the Galatian king Deiotaros (circa 62-40 BC), who modelled it after Roman prototypes. When Deiotaros' successor, Amyntas, died in battle in 25 BC, Octavian turned Galatia into a Roman province and incorporated Deiotaros' legion into the Roman army.
