Crawford 363/1d, Roman Republic, L. Marcius Censorinus, Denarius

Roman Republic (Rome mint 82 BC.), L. Marcius Censorinus.
AR Denarius (4.00 g, 17-18 mm).
Obv.: laureate head of Apollo right.
Rev.: Marsyas walking left, gazing upwards, wine skin over left shoulder and right arm raised; behind, tall column surmounted by a draped figure (Minerva?,Victory?); before, L. CENSOR.
Crawford 363/1d ; Sydenham 737 ; RSC Marcia 24 .

Marsyas was a Silen who found the flute which Athene had invented some times before. But when Athene saw in a mirror how awful her face was looking when playing the flute, she throw it away with a curse. Marsyas then learned to play the flute better as everyone else so that he challenged Apollo to a contest. The Muses should be the arbiters. But in this contest Apollo outsmarts Marsyas by singing to the cithara what Marsyas was not able to do with his flute. So he lost the contest and Apollo hung him up in a tree and let him skinned by a Skyth alive. His blood or the tears of the Muses then became the river Marsyas.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, lib.VI, 382-400)