The Sabinus Code: A Contribution to the Discussion on Political Agitation on Roman Republican Coins

The article analyses the iconography of the denarii bearing the scene of the Punishment of Tarpeia, issued by L. Titurius Sabinus during the Social War, re-examines its previous interpretations and offers a new one, linking it with the internal political struggle between the Optimate faction related to the tribune of the plebs M. Livius Drusus and their opponents. The author suggests that the figure of the notorious traitress was used intentionally, in terms of the political struggle against Drusus himself or his former partisans who had been found guilty of parricide and exiled under the Lex Varia, in order to prevent them from returning to Rome.