Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 81 25 Feb 2021
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T. Carisius AR Denarius. Rome, 46 BC. Draped and winged bust of Victory to right; S•C behind / Victory holding wreath, driving quadriga to right; [T•]CARISI in exergue. Crawford 464/4; RSC Carisia 3. 3.65g, 20mm, 2h.
Good Very Fine; some flatness and small banker's mark to obv., slightly off-centre strike, highly lustrous metal.
From the Vitangelo Collection, collector's ticket included.
No Roman glancing at this denarius in 46 BC could have missed its symbolism. Combining a bust of Victory on the obverse with a depiction of Victory speeding away in a chariot on the reverse, it could only refer to Caesar's recent defeat of the Optimates at the Battle of Thapsus in modern Tunisia.
After Caesar had crossed the Rubicon, the Optimates, led by Pompey the Great, fled him to Greece and were defeated there by his forces at the Battle of Pharsalus. His enemies then retreated again to Africa, re-grouped (after the assassination of Pompey in Egypt, seemingly not ordered by Caesar) and assembled a large force to continue the war with Caesar.
Skirmishes along the North African coast preceded the Battle of Thapsus itself, in which Caesar's experienced force shattered the army of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio and the allied forces of King Juba of Numidia. The battle itself is notable for being the last battle in the West which saw a large scale use of elephants – Scipio's army contained 60 of these, but their effect was blunted by the tactics of Caesar, whose archers panicked the elephants into trampling their own allies, and by the bravery of Caesar's Legio V Alaudae, who stoutly withstood the elephants' charge and maintained the centre of their line in doing so.
This triumphant defeat effectively ended the African stage of the Civil War. It was followed shortly after by the suicides of the great moral force that was Cato the Younger, the obdurate adherent of Stoic philosophy and notoriously conservative Senator who had acted as a general for the Optimates' forces, and of Scipio himself, when caught off the coast at Hippo Regius trying to flee to Iberia to continue the war. Peace in Africa had been achieved, and Caesar returned to Rome, but the feeling in the city as encapsulated by this Denarius - that Caesar's victory was now total - would prove to be fleeting. The Civil War would continue, and Caesar would next have to chase his foes down in Iberia, to where some – including Pompey's sons – had successfully fled.
Good Very Fine; some flatness and small banker's mark to obv., slightly off-centre strike, highly lustrous metal.
From the Vitangelo Collection, collector's ticket included.
No Roman glancing at this denarius in 46 BC could have missed its symbolism. Combining a bust of Victory on the obverse with a depiction of Victory speeding away in a chariot on the reverse, it could only refer to Caesar's recent defeat of the Optimates at the Battle of Thapsus in modern Tunisia.
After Caesar had crossed the Rubicon, the Optimates, led by Pompey the Great, fled him to Greece and were defeated there by his forces at the Battle of Pharsalus. His enemies then retreated again to Africa, re-grouped (after the assassination of Pompey in Egypt, seemingly not ordered by Caesar) and assembled a large force to continue the war with Caesar.
Skirmishes along the North African coast preceded the Battle of Thapsus itself, in which Caesar's experienced force shattered the army of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio and the allied forces of King Juba of Numidia. The battle itself is notable for being the last battle in the West which saw a large scale use of elephants – Scipio's army contained 60 of these, but their effect was blunted by the tactics of Caesar, whose archers panicked the elephants into trampling their own allies, and by the bravery of Caesar's Legio V Alaudae, who stoutly withstood the elephants' charge and maintained the centre of their line in doing so.
This triumphant defeat effectively ended the African stage of the Civil War. It was followed shortly after by the suicides of the great moral force that was Cato the Younger, the obdurate adherent of Stoic philosophy and notoriously conservative Senator who had acted as a general for the Optimates' forces, and of Scipio himself, when caught off the coast at Hippo Regius trying to flee to Iberia to continue the war. Peace in Africa had been achieved, and Caesar returned to Rome, but the feeling in the city as encapsulated by this Denarius - that Caesar's victory was now total - would prove to be fleeting. The Civil War would continue, and Caesar would next have to chase his foes down in Iberia, to where some – including Pompey's sons – had successfully fled.