I was looking at my Brutus denarius of circa 54 BC, the one where Marcus Junius Brutus as moneyer in 54 BC chose to put two of his ancestors on his issue. As we all know Romans at this time did not put living rulers on their coins at that time, just their divinities or long gone heroes like this image of two bearded ancestors from way back when. I have started to wonder something. I don't know if the latter Brutus, THEE Brutus of Caesar's assassination, had a sardonic sense of humor, but I have begun to wonder if under all that facial hair he did image himself and got away with it. Does anyone know if there is any image of the assassin and if the bearded image of the Brutus on the coin of 54 BC might look something like the Brutus of the First century BC? Thanks.
IMO, it would be hard to differentiate between family resemblance and a sense of humor without some contemporary accusations. Here are side by side mug shots from EID Mar and the denarius of 54 BC. P.S. @kevin McGonigal I should have mentioned: an amazing coin, with its celebration of tyrranicidal ancestors, and dramatic foreshadowing of the act of March 15, 44 BC. Here's my coin of this type from July 4 post.
