Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Auction 123 23-24 May 2023
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Civil War. AD 68-69. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.39 g, 6h). Group I (Spain). Uncertain Spanish mint. Diadamed and draped bust of Bonus Eventus right / Roma advancing right, holding Victory on globe and transverse scepter. RIC I 11; AM 53; RSC 400. Some light scratches and porosity, edge split, graffito ("VII") in field on obverse. VF. Very rare.
Ex Dipl.-Ing. Christian Gollnow Collection (Leu Numismatik 9, 24 October 2021), lot 1029, purchased from Harlan J. Berk, June 1992.
The civil wars at the end of Nero's reign began with the revolt of the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gaius Julius Vindex, probably at the beginning of March of AD 68. Vindex offered the leadership of the revolt to Servius Sulpicius Galba, then governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, who was hailed imperator by the Spanish legions at Carthago Nova in April of the same year. The title was cautiously refused, but Galba did declare himself the legatus of the senate and people of Rome. Just a month later, Galba's confidence would be shaken by the crushing defeat of Vindex near Besançon by the general Lucius Verginius Rufus, governor of Germania Superior. But in another twist of fate, by 9 June, Nero was dead, having taken his own life. Galba began his march to Rome, and his brief reign was underway.
Coinage, of course, was needed to pay the soldiery during these precarious months of revolt and without an emperor to strike in the name of (save for that in honor of the "model emperor" of Roman history, Augustus), coinage was struck with messages suiting the political climate. The issues struck under Vindex in Gaul possess a more aggressive air that underscores the militant nature of his revolt, while Galba's coinage, minted in Spain, tend to be more constitutional and optimistic in tone.
Ex Dipl.-Ing. Christian Gollnow Collection (Leu Numismatik 9, 24 October 2021), lot 1029, purchased from Harlan J. Berk, June 1992.
The civil wars at the end of Nero's reign began with the revolt of the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gaius Julius Vindex, probably at the beginning of March of AD 68. Vindex offered the leadership of the revolt to Servius Sulpicius Galba, then governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, who was hailed imperator by the Spanish legions at Carthago Nova in April of the same year. The title was cautiously refused, but Galba did declare himself the legatus of the senate and people of Rome. Just a month later, Galba's confidence would be shaken by the crushing defeat of Vindex near Besançon by the general Lucius Verginius Rufus, governor of Germania Superior. But in another twist of fate, by 9 June, Nero was dead, having taken his own life. Galba began his march to Rome, and his brief reign was underway.
Coinage, of course, was needed to pay the soldiery during these precarious months of revolt and without an emperor to strike in the name of (save for that in honor of the "model emperor" of Roman history, Augustus), coinage was struck with messages suiting the political climate. The issues struck under Vindex in Gaul possess a more aggressive air that underscores the militant nature of his revolt, while Galba's coinage, minted in Spain, tend to be more constitutional and optimistic in tone.