53
3078
Julius Caesar. Silver Denarius (3.98 g), 49-48 BC.
Military mint
traveling with Caesar. CAESAR in exergue, elephant advancing
right, trampling horned serpent.
Reverse:
Pontifical implements:
simpulum, sprinkler, axe and priest’s hat. Crawford 443/1; HCRI
9; Sydenham 1006; RSC 49. Well struck in high relief with pleasing
old cabinet toning.
Superb Extremely Fine.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous of Caesar’s denarii, this famous is-
sue was struck at the time of his crossing of the Rubicon and
the beginning of the long period of civil wars which resulted
in the downfall of the Roman Republic. A few theories have
been presented explaining the obverse type, the most estab-
lished being that the elephant represents good, the serpent
evil, thus a message of the righteousness of Caesar’s cause.
The reverse shows the symbols of Rome’s high priest, the Pontifex
Maximus, Caesar having been elected to the office in 63 BC.
Estimated Value........................................................ $2,000 - 2,500
3079
Julius Caesar. Silver Denarius (3.87 g), 48-47 BC.
Military mint travel-
ing with Caesar in North Africa. Diademed head of Venus right.
Reverse:
CAESAR, Aeneas advancing left, holding palladium and bearing Anchises
upon his shoulder. Crawford 458/1; HCRI 55; Sydenham 1013; RSC 12. Well
struck on a nice broad flan with lustrous surfaces throughout.
Superb Mint
State.
The Roman nobility was always at pains to claim descent from ei-
ther the gods or from mythical heroes, or even more often from both.
The Julia gens claimed mythical descent from Iulus, son of the Trojan
hero Aeneas, who himself was the son of the goddess Venus and An-
chises. Although not struck on as massive a scale as Caesar’s well-
known elephant type of 49-48 BC, this type is considerably more
common than any other coin of Caesar, and was struck to pay for
Caesar’s protracted North African campaign against the Pompeians.
Estimated Value......................................................................... $1,500 - 2,000
Ex NAC 40 (16 May 2007), 549.
