Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XX 29-30 Oct 2020
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Julius Caesar AR Denarius. Lifetime issue. Rome, late February 44 BC. M. Mettius, moneyer. CAESAR IMP, laureate head of Caesar to right; lituus and simpulum behind / M METTIVS, Venus standing left, holding Victory advancing to left on her outstretched right hand, sceptre in her left and resting her left elbow on a shield on a globe at her side; G in left field. Crawford 480/3; CRI 100; Sydenham 1056; RSC 32; Alföldi Type III, pl. XII, 26 (O2/R4 - this coin); Babelon (Julia) 33, (Mettia) 5; Kraay, NC 1954, pl. III, 4; Alföldi, ANS Cent. Public., pl. I, 9. 3.77g, 18mm, 2h.
Near Mint State; wonderful old cabinet tone, a startlingly realistic portrait of this most celebrated statesman and general in the final months of his life.
This coin published in M.R. Alföldi, Caesar in 44 v. Chr. Antiquitas 3 (Bonn 1985);
From the G.T. Collection of the Twelve Caesars;
Ex Exceptional Roman Denarii Collection, Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, Auction 80, June 2014, lot 3081 (hammer: USD 85,000);
Ex Rubicon Collection, Heritage World Coin Auctions, Long Beach Signature Sale 3015, 7 September 2011, lot 23260 (hammer: USD 50,000);
Ex Connoisseur of Portraiture Collection, Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 38, 21 March 2007, lot 1;
Ex Bank Leu AG, Auction 10, 29 May 1974, lot 8;
Ex H. C. Lewis Collection, Naville & Cie, Auction XI, 18 June 1925, lot 157.
In the years of his supremacy, Caesar had amassed unprecedented power by corrupting the institutions of the old Republic to his own requirements. First appointed Dictator in 49 BC by the Praetor (and future Triumvir) Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, possibly in order to preside over elections, Caesar resigned his Dictatorship within eleven days but in 48 BC he was appointed Dictator again, only this time for an indefinite period, and was also given permanent tribunician powers making his person sacrosanct and allowing him to veto the Senate. In 46 BC he was appointed Dictator for ten years, and he gave himself quasi-censorial powers under the mantle of 'Prefect of the Morals', enabling him to fill the Senate with his partisans who duly voted him the titles of Pater Patriae and Imperator. He increased the number of magistrates who were elected each year, thus allowing him to reward his supporters, and in October 45 BC, having served in the unconstitutional role of Sole Consul for that year, Caesar resigned his consulship and facilitated the election of two successors for the remainder of the year - theoretically restoring the ordinary consulship, but in practice submitting the Consuls to the Dictatorial executive - a practice that later become common under the Empire. In February 44 BC, one month before his assassination, Caesar was appointed Dictator for life.
More followed; he was given the unprecedented honour of having his own likeness placed upon the Roman coinage, his statue was placed next to those of the kings, he was granted a golden chair in the Senate, and was permitted to wear triumphal dress whenever he chose. Then, at the festival of the Lupercal, Marc Antony presented Caesar with a royal diadem, and attempted to place it on his head. Yet for all these hideous affronts to the ancient institutions of the Republic and the sensibilities of the Roman people, perhaps his most egregious reform was the law he passed in preparation for his planned campaign against the Parthian Empire. Realising that his absence from Rome would impede his ability to install his own men in positions of power and that therefore his back would be exposed while away from the city, Caesar decreed that he would have the right to appoint all magistrates in 43 BC, and all consuls and tribunes in 42 BC, thus at a stroke transforming the magistrates from being representatives of the people to being representatives of the dictator.
The obverse of this coin presents a bold portrait of the dictator in the final months of his life, wearing the corona civica Caesar had won while serving in the army of M. Minucius Thermus at the Siege of Mytilene in 81 BC.
Near Mint State; wonderful old cabinet tone, a startlingly realistic portrait of this most celebrated statesman and general in the final months of his life.
This coin published in M.R. Alföldi, Caesar in 44 v. Chr. Antiquitas 3 (Bonn 1985);
From the G.T. Collection of the Twelve Caesars;
Ex Exceptional Roman Denarii Collection, Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, Auction 80, June 2014, lot 3081 (hammer: USD 85,000);
Ex Rubicon Collection, Heritage World Coin Auctions, Long Beach Signature Sale 3015, 7 September 2011, lot 23260 (hammer: USD 50,000);
Ex Connoisseur of Portraiture Collection, Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 38, 21 March 2007, lot 1;
Ex Bank Leu AG, Auction 10, 29 May 1974, lot 8;
Ex H. C. Lewis Collection, Naville & Cie, Auction XI, 18 June 1925, lot 157.
In the years of his supremacy, Caesar had amassed unprecedented power by corrupting the institutions of the old Republic to his own requirements. First appointed Dictator in 49 BC by the Praetor (and future Triumvir) Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, possibly in order to preside over elections, Caesar resigned his Dictatorship within eleven days but in 48 BC he was appointed Dictator again, only this time for an indefinite period, and was also given permanent tribunician powers making his person sacrosanct and allowing him to veto the Senate. In 46 BC he was appointed Dictator for ten years, and he gave himself quasi-censorial powers under the mantle of 'Prefect of the Morals', enabling him to fill the Senate with his partisans who duly voted him the titles of Pater Patriae and Imperator. He increased the number of magistrates who were elected each year, thus allowing him to reward his supporters, and in October 45 BC, having served in the unconstitutional role of Sole Consul for that year, Caesar resigned his consulship and facilitated the election of two successors for the remainder of the year - theoretically restoring the ordinary consulship, but in practice submitting the Consuls to the Dictatorial executive - a practice that later become common under the Empire. In February 44 BC, one month before his assassination, Caesar was appointed Dictator for life.
More followed; he was given the unprecedented honour of having his own likeness placed upon the Roman coinage, his statue was placed next to those of the kings, he was granted a golden chair in the Senate, and was permitted to wear triumphal dress whenever he chose. Then, at the festival of the Lupercal, Marc Antony presented Caesar with a royal diadem, and attempted to place it on his head. Yet for all these hideous affronts to the ancient institutions of the Republic and the sensibilities of the Roman people, perhaps his most egregious reform was the law he passed in preparation for his planned campaign against the Parthian Empire. Realising that his absence from Rome would impede his ability to install his own men in positions of power and that therefore his back would be exposed while away from the city, Caesar decreed that he would have the right to appoint all magistrates in 43 BC, and all consuls and tribunes in 42 BC, thus at a stroke transforming the magistrates from being representatives of the people to being representatives of the dictator.
The obverse of this coin presents a bold portrait of the dictator in the final months of his life, wearing the corona civica Caesar had won while serving in the army of M. Minucius Thermus at the Siege of Mytilene in 81 BC.