Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXI 24-25 Mar 2021
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Julius Caesar AR Denarius. Rome, January - February 44 BC. L. Aemilius Buca, moneyer. Laureate head to right; CAESAR•IM before, P M and crescent behind / Venus Victrix standing to left, holding Victory in outstretched right hand and leaning on sceptre with left; L•AEMILIVS behind, BVCA before. Crawford 480/4; CRI 102; BMCRR Rome 4152-3; RSC 22; Alföldi Type IV, 129 (A7/R5). 3.90g, 20mm, 2h.
Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone.
Ex private Japanese Collection;
Ex Heritage World Coin Auctions, New York Signature Sale 3030, 5 January 2014, lot 23905 (hammer: US$ 15,000).
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 coinage of the early months of 44 BC reveals the necessity for the Senate and moneyers to please Caesar. Not only was it decreed that Caesar's portrait should be the first of a living individual to appear on Republican coins but all bar one of the four moneyers only issued denarii that honoured Caesar and his regime. Lucius Aemilius Buca, the moneyer of this current coin and apparently a relative of the earlier dictator Sulla, was alone in minting a denarius which referred to his family history and not specifically to Caesar. This coin, however, is characteristic of the Caesarian imagery which was predominant during these months. The obverse legend honours Caesar as Pontifex Maximus, an office which Caesar had held since 63 BC, and the reverse type refers to the divine ancestry of the gens Julia (as discussed in the next coin).
Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone.
Ex private Japanese Collection;
Ex Heritage World Coin Auctions, New York Signature Sale 3030, 5 January 2014, lot 23905 (hammer: US$ 15,000).
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 coinage of the early months of 44 BC reveals the necessity for the Senate and moneyers to please Caesar. Not only was it decreed that Caesar's portrait should be the first of a living individual to appear on Republican coins but all bar one of the four moneyers only issued denarii that honoured Caesar and his regime. Lucius Aemilius Buca, the moneyer of this current coin and apparently a relative of the earlier dictator Sulla, was alone in minting a denarius which referred to his family history and not specifically to Caesar. This coin, however, is characteristic of the Caesarian imagery which was predominant during these months. The obverse legend honours Caesar as Pontifex Maximus, an office which Caesar had held since 63 BC, and the reverse type refers to the divine ancestry of the gens Julia (as discussed in the next coin).