Samuel Ball Platner, Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome

COLUMNA MINUCIA

erected in honour of L. Minucius Augurinus, praefectus annonae in 439 B.C., by order of the people and paid for by popular subscription-the first occurrence of the kind in Rome (Plin. NH xxxiv. 21). This column stood outside the porta Trigemina, and is represented on denarii of 129 and 14 B.C. (Babelon, Minucia, 3, 9, 10) ¹ as surmounted with a statue holding stalks of wheat, and with two other statues standing at its base, one of which seems to represent Minucius. It is probable, therefore, that this is the same monument referred to elsewhere in Pliny (NH xviii. 15), where the same story is told, but a statue, not a column, is mentioned. The bos aurata, which Livy (iv. 16) says was erected in honour of Minucius outside the porta Trigemina, was probably part of the same monument (cf. PORTA MINUCIA).