After Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., a series of civil wars broke out. In 43 B.C., Marcus Antonius, who is pictured on this denarius (silver coin), was joined in the Second Triumvirate with Octavian (later Augustus) and Marcus Lepidus. After the Second Triumvirate defeated the conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, at the Battle of Phillipi in 41 B.C., the three men turned against each other. Marcus Antonius traveled east where he formed an alliance with Cleopatra, then ruler of Egypt. It was during his time in the East that this coin was minted. Its date can be assigned due to the reference to the consulship of Lucius Antonius on the reverse. The obverse celebrated Marcus Antonius as a triumvir, that is, a member of the Second Triumvirate. That the coin was minted by a proquaestor, Marcus Nerva, is significant: coins were typically minted by officials called the triumviri monetales, also known as the moneyers; but because of the political tumult, the duties of officials were necessarily transferred to other officers, and the minting of coins on behalf of Marcus Antonius obviously fell, in this instance, to a proquaestor who was in that province. Deborah Sneed 2011.