Alea Iacta Est. A Coin of Rome.

Julius Caesar, Denarius, military mint moving with Caesar, spring-summer 48, diademed head of Pietas right, wearing an oak wreath, hair tied back and ornamented with jewels, lii behind, rev. caesar below trophy of Gallic arms with shield, horned helmet and carnyx, axe right.

On 10 January 49 BC Caesar crossed the Rubicon, effectively declaring war on the Roman senate.  With so many Northern Italian cities opening their gates to Caesar  the senate fled south, abandoning Rome.  Over the summer of 49 BC Caesar defeated the Senatorial armies in Spain and then sought out the remaining Senatorial armies, lead by Pompey Magnus.  He defeated Pompey at Pharsalus in an exceedingly short engagement in 48 BC.  To enable his troops to have access to official currency to facilitate trade and pay for supplies, Caesar would have had a travelling military mint that could produce coins as needed during this period.  This coin is an example of those produced in the military mint accompanying Caesar.  The reverse has an image of his most famous victory, reminding the troops that he was the General who defeated the Gauls who had been viewed with fear by the Romans since they first sacked Rome after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC.  It would  have boosted morale as they marched to face Pompey at Pharsalus, where he fielded a substantially larger army.

The image of Pietas (literally piety or duty) reinforced the values of Roman society and the importance of fulfilling one's obligations to both the divine and the community (or in this case, the army). Pietas is first represented on Roman coins on denarii issued by Marcus Herennius in 108 BC.

This particular coin made me very aware of the mind games that the auction houses play. I had been bidding in several auctions prior to this where the hammer price on coins was many multiples of the estimates provided (one coin I was after hammered at over 12 times estimate).  With this mindset, when this coin was offered I stretched beyond what I would more conservatively bid and won at my limit. However it is a lovely coin in hand and so just a cautionary on auction behaviour – ignore estimates and look at recent actuals on acsearch.info or elsewhere.