Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 81 25 Feb 2021
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Julius Caesar AR Denarius. Military mint travelling with Caesar, 48-47 BC. Diademed female head to right, wearing oak-wreath, cruciform earring, and pearl necklace; LII (Caesar's age) behind / Trophy of Gallic arms facing, wearing horned helmet, holding oval shield ornamented with thunderbolt in right hand and carnyx in left; securis to right, CAESAR across lower field. Crawford 452/2; BMCRR Rome 3955; CRI 11; RSC 18. 4.08g, 19mm, 6h.
Near Extremely Fine; slight corrosion, beautiful old cabinet tone.
From the Vitangelo Collection, collector's ticket included.
Caesar's conquest of Gaul, to which the reverse of this coin alludes, with its captured Gallic spoils (the typical shield, the Gallic 'carnyx' or war horn, and axe), was the springboard from which he was to take control of the Republic and become its Dictator. It allowed him to grow his power base through both fame as the conqueror of so vast a region and of so many peoples, and through strength as the commander of an army that grew ever more experienced and fiercely loyal; his allocation of the provinces of Gaul also granted him a magistrate's immunity from the prosecution his enemies intended to conduct upon his return to Rome, which would undoubtedly have stunted his career. It was from his province of Cisalpine Gaul that he invaded Italy across the Rubicon, and he did so with the Legio XIII Gemina, who had fought for him in the major battles of his conquest of Gaul.
The importance of this conquest of Gaul to Caesar's career, and his awareness of this importance, is demonstrated by this coin. It was minted some time after he had left Gaul behind, by the mint which moved with his army across the Mediterranean and beyond as it chased down the Optimates – this coin most likely in Greece shortly after the victory over Pompey in Pharsalus - yet it harks back to these Gallic victories, reminding those he paid with these coins of his past as a Roman hero - a conqueror not of his own people, but of his people's enemies.
Near Extremely Fine; slight corrosion, beautiful old cabinet tone.
From the Vitangelo Collection, collector's ticket included.
Caesar's conquest of Gaul, to which the reverse of this coin alludes, with its captured Gallic spoils (the typical shield, the Gallic 'carnyx' or war horn, and axe), was the springboard from which he was to take control of the Republic and become its Dictator. It allowed him to grow his power base through both fame as the conqueror of so vast a region and of so many peoples, and through strength as the commander of an army that grew ever more experienced and fiercely loyal; his allocation of the provinces of Gaul also granted him a magistrate's immunity from the prosecution his enemies intended to conduct upon his return to Rome, which would undoubtedly have stunted his career. It was from his province of Cisalpine Gaul that he invaded Italy across the Rubicon, and he did so with the Legio XIII Gemina, who had fought for him in the major battles of his conquest of Gaul.
The importance of this conquest of Gaul to Caesar's career, and his awareness of this importance, is demonstrated by this coin. It was minted some time after he had left Gaul behind, by the mint which moved with his army across the Mediterranean and beyond as it chased down the Optimates – this coin most likely in Greece shortly after the victory over Pompey in Pharsalus - yet it harks back to these Gallic victories, reminding those he paid with these coins of his past as a Roman hero - a conqueror not of his own people, but of his people's enemies.