Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 78 17 Dec 2020
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Caligula Æ Sestertius. Rome, circa AD 37-38. C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT, laureate head to left / Emperor, bare-headed and togate, standing to left on platform before low stool, addressing five soldiers below, helmeted and with shields and parazonia; the two rearmost pairs carry an aquila; ADLOCVT above; COH in exergue. RIC I 32; BMCRE 33-35. 29.04g, 35mm, 6h.
Very Fine.
From the collection of Z.P., Austria.
Suetonius recalls that it was 'to the jokes of the soldiers in the camp that he (Gaius Julius Caesar) owed the name Caligula, having been brought up among them in the dress of a common soldier (Suet. Cal. 9). Son of Germanicus, Caligula, spent his formative years with the soldiers and by the time he became emperor in AD 37 he was known as "the Pious", "Child of the Camp, the Father of the Armies," and "the Greatest and Best Caesar." (Suet. Cal. 22).
It is no surprise then that here on one of the first coins minted during his rule, Caligula is represented standing on a platform, dressed in a toga with his arm emphatically raised, addressing the army who stand in rank before him. Caligula was the first to depict this type of scene on a coin, known as an Adlocutio Cohortium. Cicero describes the formal occasion in his oration against Gabinius - "When (says he) the general (Imperator), openly, in the presence of the army, stretched out his right hand, not to incite the soldiers to glory, but to tell them that they might make their own market" (Omnia sibi et empta et emenda esse. - Provinc. cons. c. 4.).
Caligula's first acts as emperor displayed good faith towards both the people and the army, as described by Suetonius: 'he fulfilled by his elevation the wish of the Roman people, I may venture to say, of all mankind; for he had long been the object of expectation and desire to the greater part of the provincials and soldiers who had known him when a child; and to the whole people of Rome, from their affection for the memory of Germanicus, his father, and compassion for the family almost entirely destroyed' (Suet. Cal. 13). This seldom discussed promising beginning of Caligula's early reign was quickly overshadowed by the tyranny that ensued. In an ironic turn of events Caligula's period of 'insanity' was brought to an abrupt end by the very soldiers who supported his early years: the Praetorian Guard assassinated Caligula in AD 41.
Very Fine.
From the collection of Z.P., Austria.
Suetonius recalls that it was 'to the jokes of the soldiers in the camp that he (Gaius Julius Caesar) owed the name Caligula, having been brought up among them in the dress of a common soldier (Suet. Cal. 9). Son of Germanicus, Caligula, spent his formative years with the soldiers and by the time he became emperor in AD 37 he was known as "the Pious", "Child of the Camp, the Father of the Armies," and "the Greatest and Best Caesar." (Suet. Cal. 22).
It is no surprise then that here on one of the first coins minted during his rule, Caligula is represented standing on a platform, dressed in a toga with his arm emphatically raised, addressing the army who stand in rank before him. Caligula was the first to depict this type of scene on a coin, known as an Adlocutio Cohortium. Cicero describes the formal occasion in his oration against Gabinius - "When (says he) the general (Imperator), openly, in the presence of the army, stretched out his right hand, not to incite the soldiers to glory, but to tell them that they might make their own market" (Omnia sibi et empta et emenda esse. - Provinc. cons. c. 4.).
Caligula's first acts as emperor displayed good faith towards both the people and the army, as described by Suetonius: 'he fulfilled by his elevation the wish of the Roman people, I may venture to say, of all mankind; for he had long been the object of expectation and desire to the greater part of the provincials and soldiers who had known him when a child; and to the whole people of Rome, from their affection for the memory of Germanicus, his father, and compassion for the family almost entirely destroyed' (Suet. Cal. 13). This seldom discussed promising beginning of Caligula's early reign was quickly overshadowed by the tyranny that ensued. In an ironic turn of events Caligula's period of 'insanity' was brought to an abrupt end by the very soldiers who supported his early years: the Praetorian Guard assassinated Caligula in AD 41.