Crawford 348/4, Roman Republic, 87 BC., moneyer Lucius Rubrius Dossenus, Quinarius

Roman Republic (Rome mint 87 BC.), moneyer Lucius Rubrius Dossenus.
Quinarius (14-16,5 mm, 1,81 g), silver, axis irregular alignment ?? (ca. 250°),
Obv.: DOS – SEN , behind laureate head of Neptune right, trident over his shoulder.
Rev.: L RVBRI, downwards behind Victory standing r., holding wreath and palm-branch; before garlanded altar with snake coiled round top.
Crawford 348/4 ; BMCRR 2459 ; Rubria 4 .

Medium rarity (170 found specimens according www.lesdioscures.com). For this type Crawford estimated 200 obverse dies and 222 reverse dies.

Lucius Rubrius Dossenus seems to have belonged to the aristocratic party, supporting Sylla against Marius. He would have escaped the proscriptions of 87/86 BC. According to the Kleine Pauly (RE. IV, 1463, n°4), our moneyer could be the one who became praetor in 68 BC, then propraetor legate in Macedonia in 67 BC, before supporting Cato of Utica during the Civil War. According to H. A. Grueber, (BMC. I, p. 311, note 1), he would have been taken prisoner in Corfinium in 49 BC by Julius Caesar before being released.

The altar on the reverse, usually is that of Aesculapius which was placed on the Tiberian island. Crawford, thinks that the altar, in relation to the god, refers to an epidemic of plague which would have ravaged Rome, the previous year and of which the authorities would have triumphed, which explains the presence of Victory.