Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire
Gaius, 37 – 41

Denarius 37-38, AR 3.68 g. C CAESAR·AVG·GERM·P·M TR·POT Laureate head of Gaius r. Rev. AGRIPPINA MAT CAES AVG GERM Draped bust of Agrippina r. C 2. BMC 15. RIC 14. CBN 25 (Lugdunum).
Very rare. Two superb portraits of fine style struck in high relief, extremely fine

Privately purchased from Harlan J Berk.

When Caligula became emperor he did so as the lone-surviving male of the lines of Augustus and Germanicus; though his three sisters were still alive, he had lost both parents and both brothers during the reign of Tiberius. His father had died under mysterious circumstances and the rest fell during the family's contest for power against Tiberius and his prefect Sejanus. Since Caligula's claim to power rested upon his membership in the Julio-Claudian family, early in his reign he tried to curry favour by taking a journey to the islands of Potnia and Pandateria to gather the ashes of his mother Agrippina and his eldest brother Nero Caesar. (His brother Drusus Caesar died of starvation in prison, and none of his remains survived.) The seas were stormy, and the perilous nature of his journey only amplified the appearance of Caligula's devotion to the memory of his family. As part of this program of honoring his ill-fated relatives, Caligula issued this denarius with the portrait of his mother, who for the decade after Germanicus' death had been Tiberius' greatest critic, and his most persistent opponent. On this denarius her facial features are similar to those of Caligula – a feature that seems to combine family resemblance and a programmatic desire to show the kinship between the new emperor and his mother.