Denarius - Quintus Labienus Q•LABIENVS•PARTHICVS•IMP

Quintus Labienus was the son of Julius Caesar's estranged general Titus Labienus, and spent years at the Parthian court as an envoy for the Pompeian cause. When the opportunity arose after Caesar's assassination, he convinced the Parthian king Orodes II to invade Roman territory — and led that invasion himself, sweeping through Syria and into Asia Minor in 40 BC. His coinage was struck during that brief, extraordinary moment when a Roman commander was actively operating as a Parthian-backed warlord on Roman soil. The title PARTHICVS IMP on a Roman-style denarius is almost without parallel in its audacity.

The campaign collapsed the following year. Marcus Antonius's general Publius Ventidius Bassus routed the Parthians at the Battle of Gindarus in 38 BC, and Labienus was hunted down and killed shortly after. His coinage represents one of the shortest-lived and most politically aberrant issues of the late Republic.