Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
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L. Servius Rufus AR Denarius. Rome, 43 BC. Bare head of Brutus right; L•SERVIVS RVFVS around / The Dioscuri standing facing, both holding spears and with swords hanging from waist. Crawford 515/2; CRI 324; Sydenham 1082; Sulpicia 10; Woytek, Arma et Nummi p. 558. 3.59g, 20mm, 2h.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare.
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 100, 29 May 2017, lot 390.
The portrait on this issue of a moneyer known only from his coins bears a remarkable resemblance to Brutus, and it has been suggested that this image could have been a veiled expression of political sympathy toward Brutus' cause. The Republic was in a state of fractious civil war: the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, along with Octavian as propraetor, opposed the forces of Antony in Cisalpine Gaul; the liberators under Brutus and Cassius were meanwhile ravaging the territories in Illyria, Thrace and Macedonia, and Asia Minor.
The moneyers of this uncertain period hence appear to have deliberately employed ambiguous types on their coins: an ancestor's portrait that resembled Octavian on the denarii of M. Arrius Secundus; a head of Victory resembling Fulvia, the wife of Marc Antony, on C. Numonius Vaala's aurei; and here the portrait of some ancestor or other which in fact most closely resembles Brutus.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare.
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 100, 29 May 2017, lot 390.
The portrait on this issue of a moneyer known only from his coins bears a remarkable resemblance to Brutus, and it has been suggested that this image could have been a veiled expression of political sympathy toward Brutus' cause. The Republic was in a state of fractious civil war: the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, along with Octavian as propraetor, opposed the forces of Antony in Cisalpine Gaul; the liberators under Brutus and Cassius were meanwhile ravaging the territories in Illyria, Thrace and Macedonia, and Asia Minor.
The moneyers of this uncertain period hence appear to have deliberately employed ambiguous types on their coins: an ancestor's portrait that resembled Octavian on the denarii of M. Arrius Secundus; a head of Victory resembling Fulvia, the wife of Marc Antony, on C. Numonius Vaala's aurei; and here the portrait of some ancestor or other which in fact most closely resembles Brutus.