IIIIvir A. P. F. In MRR 2.447, Index, 594, refer also to Crawford, RRC 1.502- 511, no. 494, 42 B.C. With L. Livineius, P. Clodius, and C. Vibius Varus. See Wiseman, NM 243, no. 268.
(Broughton MRR III)
The coinage in gold and silver issued by Regulus and his fellow IIIIviri, P. Clodius M. f., L. Mussidius T. f. Longus, and C. V(e)ibius Va(a)rus, to which various dates have been ascribed from Caesar's death to 38 (see MRR 2.443), seems now firmly dated to 42 (Crawford, RRC 1.502-511, no. 494), and identified by triumviral portraits and names as early issues of triumviral gold and silver in that year (see T. V. Buttrey, The Triumviral Portrait Gold of the Quattuorviri Monetales of 42 B.C). A group of types (Crawford, RRC no. 494, nos. 26a to 31) bears the name of the IIIIvir Regulus and honors members of his family without apparent reference to the triumvirs. These types present on the obverse a portrait with the inscription REGVLVS PR or L. REGVLVS PR, while on the reverse there appears the name of the monetalis with a curule chair and three fasces on either side (nos. 26a, 26b, both aurei, and the silver denarii, nos. 27 and 28), or a modius with corn ears (no. 29, a denarius), or a wild beast fight (no. 30, a denarius). But the reverse of no. 31 has, besides the curule chair with fasces on either side, the inscription REGVLVS F(ilius) above and PRAEF(ectus) UR(bi) below. There are therefore three functions and possibly as many as three persons to be distinguished. The praetor is pretty clearly the elder Regulus, father of the monetalis. He is almost certainly the man who befriended Cicero in 58 (Att. 3.17.1; Fam. 13.60.1; Shackleton Bailey, CLA 2.153-154). The coinage indicates that he attained the praetorship, and he may well be the officer whom Caesar after the battle of Thapsus left with a legion in charge of Hadrumetum (Bell. Afr. 89.3; MRR 2.303). The presence of the two inscriptions Regulus F(ilius) and Praef(ectus) Ur(bi) together on the reverse suggests that they might refer to the same person, though not necessarily, or even probably, to the holding of both offices in the same year, but it seems unlikely that a monetalis could have held previously so distinguished and senior an office. It is possible that the prefecture was held by a third party, but it seems more probable that the elder Regulus held this office too, most likely in 45, when Caesar left Rome in charge of many prefects and only the plebeian tribunes and aediles in office (see MRR 2.313). Note that, according to Dio (43.48.1-4; cf. Suet. Iul. 76.2), Caesar had done so in previous absences, and that these prefects had the fasces, curule chair, and dress of magistrates; but since ordinary republican magistrates were soon restored to their functions, it seems improbable that the practice took as institutional a form as Alfîldi described in "Les praefecti urbi de Cesar" (Mel. Seston 1-13).
(Broughton MRR III)