Funding a civil war

I bought some uncleaned silver coins before Christmas, and received them last weekend. One of them was this one:



Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio and Eppius, AR Denarius 47-spring 46 BC.

Military mint traveling with Scipio in Africa.

Obverse: Q · METEL SCIPIO IMP Head of Africa to right, wearing elephant's skin headdress; in field to right, stalk of grain; below, plow.

Reverse: EPPIVS LEG · F · C Hercules standing facing, with his hand set on hip, leaning on club draped with lion's skin and set on rock.

Reference: Babelon (Caecilia) 50. Crawford 461/1. CRI 44. Sydenham 1051.

Yes, quote far from a stellar coin, but I don't mind with this moneyer. It looks like the coin has been at war, and it probably has. It also rhymes well with my image of Scipio himself from that time - a person that I'm glad had his time 2000 years before me.

I find the coins from this time in history quite interesting, though. I must do, as I have collected several issues from the civil war between Caesar and Pompeius & Co, and the following war between Marcus Antonius/Octavian and Brutus and Cassius. I'm still quite far from having all the coins from this war, and probably never will, but perhaps the combined forces of coin talk are able to fund these two campaigns together? Let's see some coins minted from 49-42 BC, coins that funded these civil wars.

Although I've been showing them several times before, here are my other ones:



Julius Caesar. AR Denarius, late 48-47 BC. Military mint traveling with Caesar in North Africa.

Obverse: Diademed head of Venus right. /

Reverse: Aeneas advancing left, holding palladium and bearing Anchises on his shoulder. Crawford 458/1; CRI 55; Sydenham 1013; RSC 12; RBW 1600.

Size: 18mm, 3.85 g, 9h

History

While Caesar had been in Egypt installing Cleopatra as sole ruler, four of his veteran legions encamped outside Rome under the command of Mark Antony. The legions were waiting for their discharges and the bonus pay Caesar had promised them before the battle of Pharsalus. As Caesar lingered in Egypt, the situation quickly deteriorated. Antony lost control of the troops and they began looting estates south of the capital. Several delegations of diplomats were dispatched to try to quell the mutiny.

Nothing worked and the mutineers continued to call for their discharges and back pay. After several months, Caesar finally arrived to address the legions in person. Caesar knew he needed these legions to deal with Pompey's supporters in north Africa, who had mustered 14 legions of their own. Caesar also knew that he did not have the funds to give the soldiers their back pay, much less the money needed to induce them to re-enlist for the north African campaign.

When Caesar approached the speaker's dais, a hush fell over the mutinous soldiers. Most were embarrassed by their role in the mutiny in Caesar's presence. Caesar asked the troops what they wanted with his cold voice. Ashamed to demand money, the men began to call out for their discharge. Caesar bluntly addressed them as "citizens" instead of "soldiers," a tacit indication that they had already discharged themselves by virtue of their disloyalty.

He went on to tell them that they would all be discharged immediately. He said he would pay them the money he owed them after he won the north African campaign with other legions. The soldiers were shocked. They had been through 15 years of war with Caesar and they had become fiercely loyal to him in the process. It had never occurred to them that Caesar did not need them.

The soldiers' resistance collapsed. They crowded the dais and begged to be taken to north Africa. Caesar feigned indignation and then allowed himself to be won over. When he announced that he would allow them to join the campaign, a huge cheer arose from the assembled troops. Through this reverse psychology, Caesar re-enlisted four enthusiastic veteran legions to invade north Africa without spending a single sestertius.

Caesar quickly gained a significant victory at Thapsus in 46 BC over the forces of Metellus Scipio, Cato the Younger and Juba (who all committed suicide).

This coin is referring to the mythological decent that the Julia gens claims. They claim that their geneology can be traced to Iulus, the son of Aeneas and the grandson of Venus.



Julius Caesar , Spain 46-45 BC.

Obverse: Head of Venus r., wearing diadem; behind, Cupid,

Reverse: Trophy with oval shield and carnyx in each hand; below, two captives: male and female (Gallia); in ex. CAESAR.

RRC 468/1a; BMCRR Spain 89; B. Iulia 11; Sydenham 1014; Catalli 2001, 679.

The bust on the on the obverse is that of Venus Genetrix, to whom Caesar in B.C. 46 had dedicated a temple in the Forum Julium. The reverse refers to his victories and the Gaul may be Vercigetorix. The coin was struck by a military mint in Spain, where Caesar was pursuing the sons of Pompeius, who he finally defeated in the battle of Munda in 45 BC.



Moneyer: L.C. Lentulus Spinther for C.Cassius Longinus/ Marcus Iunius Brutus

Obverse: Bust of Libertas right, veiled, draped and diademed, wearing double earring and necklace of pendants; before LEIBERTAS counterclockwise; behind, C.CASSI.IMP clockwise; all within beaded border.

Reverse: Capis (jug) and lituus; below LENTVLVS/SPINT; all within beaded border.

Weight: 3.84 grams, Diameter: 18mm Conservation: Extremely fine

Reference: Sydenham 1305; Crawford 500/5; BMCRR East 74; Cassia 18; Cohen 6; Vagi 103; Sear Mill 1447/2; Sear Imp. 223.

Sear suggests that this coin was struck at Smyrna, where Cassius met with Brutus to join forces against the Second Triumvirate in late 43 BC/early 42 BC.

Now, are we able to fund these wars? Let's see some denarii here, or do I have to "put a per capita tax on slaves and children; tax columns, doors, grain, soldiers, weaponry, oarsmen, and machinery; if a name could be found for a thing, that was seen as sufficient for making money from it." - Caesar describing Scipio.

 

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Aaaaand if someone can explain how I can get text without a line over it, it would be great....

 

You used [s ] instead of (s)

S in brackets is strikethrough

Nice coin and writeup by the way!

 

Thanks!

 

Sigh.... I’m not able to change this strikethrough, it seems.
Looks like I’ll just have to give peace a chance and quit this whole campaign.

 

In rhe rich text taskbar, the second one from the right, the T with the x next to it, will remove formatting from highlighted text.

 

You're the friendly neighbourhood Super-Donna, Donna.

 

Like Donna said - that Tx button clears the formatting.

The strikethrough shows up when I cut n' paste from Word into a CT post. Not all the time, but frequently.

Cool coin, by the way.

 

I only knew this because the exact same thing happened to me the other day! It took me quite a while to figure out how to fix it.

 

I have never been clear on why the strikethrough control is found on the 'Insert' menu along with

Spoiler: Spoiler

Spoiler

etc.

 

I suspect that you are trying to talk your way out of paying for the war here. I’m sure you have a denarius or two somewhere?

 

This is a wretched coin, even by my low standards. But here is a quinarius of Cato the Younger struck in Africa. It was about $6 but there comes a point where a coin is so horrible any price to pay is too much - I think this crossed the line. But I do like the banker's marks.

These are fairly common, for a Civil War issue, so I hope to upgrade someday (it can't get much worse!). Interesting thing about these quinarii is that they seemed to have been worked hard - they are often very worn and have a lot of banker's marks.



Roman Imp. Quinarius
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis
(47-46 B.C.)
Africa mint
M • CATO • PRO • PR, wreathed head of Liber right / [VICTRIX], Victory seated right, holding patera.
Porcia 11; Crawford 462/2.
(1.53 grams / 14 mm)

"In stark contrast with Scipio, coinage of Porcius Cato virtually ignores the African realities of war against Caesar. His denarius and quinarius issues, depicting, Roma/Libertas and Liber on the obverse and the same seated Victory on the reverse (Cr. 462/1,2) represent a revival of earlier, almost identical, issues by another M. Porcius Cato, moneyer of 89 B.C....If Scipio presents a Rome willing to adapt, Cato presents the illusion of a Rome utterly Republican and utterly unchanged."
Gabriela Vlahovici-Jones

 

When Donna chimes in you know your going to get an expert answer, you go girl!

 

You don't find a pretty darn good Imperatorial denarius in cleaned lots very often. Well done! Hope springs eternal!!

 

It was listed as an individual item, so I had to cough up 30€ for it. That still ain’t bad. Now where’s his big brother? I know you’ve got it....

 

LOL. Thanks for the compliment, but I'm the last person ever to claim expertise on word processing issues (or much of anything else except for certain fairly narrow areas of Western and Central European Jewish history and genealogy) -- as I said, I just figured it out myself the other day!

 

Nice coins! Some civil war stuff you want? Well, the civil war I'm into ends at Actium, 31 BC, but I won't post all my 13 coins concerning that periode of Roman history. That's a bit too much

 

I have 3 and only the smaller head variety of your coin. I had a larger head but sold it a couple years ago.


Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio and Eppius, 47-46 BC, AR Denarius (3.84g, 18.2mm, 7h). head of Africa right, wearing elephant's skin and corn stalk, Q. METELL before, SCIPIO.IMP behind, rev. Hercules standing facing, EPPIVS on right, LEG .F.C left. Crawford 461/1; Sear CRI 44, Caecilia 50a; Syd 1051

Spink Numismatic Circular, October 1965, no. 5564



Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio and P. Licinius Crassus Iunianus. Denarius, Africa 47-46, AR (3.89g, 19mm, 10h). CRASS·IVN – LEG·PRO·PR Turreted female head r.; above and below respectively, uncertain object and rostrum tridens. On l. and r. respectively, ear of corn and caduceus. Rev. METEL·PIVS – SCIP·IMP Trophy between lituus and jug. Babelon Caecilia 52 and Licinia 22. Sydenham 1049. Sear Imperators 42. RBW 1603. Crawford 460/3.

MuM sale 43, November 12-13, 1970 Lot 201



Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio and and P. Licinius Crassus Iunianus. Denarius, Africa 47-46, AR (3.97g, 18.5mm, 10h). Q·METEL·PIVS - SCIPIO·IMP Lion-headed figure of Genius Terrae Africae or Sekhmet, standing facing, clad in long robes, holding ankh in r. hand; at sides of head, G·T· – A. Rev. P·CRASSVS·IVN – LEG PRO·PR Victory standing l., holding caduceus and shield. Babelon Caecilia 51 and Licinia 21. Sydenham 1050. Sear Imperators 43. Crawford 460/4.

Ex RBW
Henry Platt Hall, Glendining July 19th, 1950 Lot 586 sold to Santamaria

 

Sweet, @Carthago

 

Donna, credit is given where credit is due. More often than not you are one who gives of your time and experience to share with others. I am in augh of your knowledge, I applaud your effort.