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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bing, post: 3741096, member: 44132&quot;]I have admired examples of this coin ever since I began collecting ancient coins, but until now, never found one in good enough condition that I could afford.&nbsp; One of the dealers I have purchased from in the past had this coin on the market.&nbsp; But because of the small edge chip, it was just collecting dust.&nbsp; I was more than surprised when I made him a offer which he accepted.&nbsp; I suppose he needed to cut his losses.&nbsp; And since I was purchasing this coin at an exceptional price, I asked for opinions from several of the CT family before consummating the purchase.</p><p><br /></p><p>Caesar&#039;s Comet was known to ancient writers as the Sidus Iulium (&quot;Julian Star&quot;) or Caesaris astrum (&quot;Star of Julius Caesar). The bright, daylight-visible comet appeared&nbsp; during the festival known as the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris – for which the 44 BC iteration was held in the month of July in the same year, some four months after the assassination of Julius Caesar, as well as Caesar&#039;s own birth month. According to Suetonius, as celebrations were getting underway, &quot;a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour, and was believed to be the soul of Caesar.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1003390[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The Comet became a symbol in the political propaganda that launched the career of Caesar&#039;s great-nephew (and adoptive son) Augustus. The Temple of Divus Iulius was built (42 BC) and dedicated (29 BC) by Augustus for purposes of fostering a &quot;cult of the comet&quot;. At the back of the temple a huge image of Caesar was erected and, according to Ovid, a flaming comet was affixed to its forehead.</p><p><br /></p><p>For illustration, not mine:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1003392[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>One of the clearest and earliest connections of Caesar to a comet occurred during the Secular Games of 17 BC when moneyer M. Sanquinius struck coins with a reverse showing a comet over the head of a wreathed man whom numismatists speculate is either a youthful Caesar, the Genius of the Secular Games, the Julian family, or Aeneas’ son Iulus. These coins were meant to strengthened the link between Julius Caesar and Augustus since Augustus associated himself with the Julians. Another set of Spanish coins, and the one I just purchased, displays an eight-rayed comet with the words DIVVS IVLIVS.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ovid describes the deification of Caesar in Metamorphoses (8 AD):</p><p><br /></p><p>Then Jupiter, the Father, spoke...&quot;Take up Caesar’s spirit from his murdered corpse, and change it into a star, so that the deified Julius may always look down from his high temple on our Capitol and forum.&quot; He had barely finished, when gentle Venus stood in the midst of the Senate, seen by no one, and took up the newly freed spirit of her Caesar from his body, and preventing it from vanishing into the air, carried it towards the glorious stars. As she carried it, she felt it glow and take fire, and loosed it from her breast: it climbed higher than the moon, and drawing behind it a fiery tail, shone as a star.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now for the coin in question:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1003394[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1003400[/ATTACH]</p><p>AUGUSTUS</p><p>AR Denarius</p><p>OBVERSE:&nbsp; CAESAR AVGVSTVS, head left wearing oak wreath</p><p>REVERSE:&nbsp; DIVVS-IVLIVS to left and right of eight rayed comet</p><p>with tail upwards</p><p>Uncertain Spanish Mint, possibly Caesaraugusta 19-18 BC</p><p>3.45g, 21mm</p><p>RIC 137b&nbsp;&nbsp; RSC 97</p><p><br /></p><p>Caesaraugusta or Caesar Augusta was the name of the Roman city of modern day Zaragoza .&nbsp; It was founded as an immune colony of Rome in the year 25 - 14 BC. Its foundation took place as part of the reorganization of the provinces of Hispania by Caesar Augustus after his victory in the Asturian-Cantabrian wars.&nbsp; A core of soldiers from the legions IV Macedonica, VI Victrix and X Gemina established the colony and integrated into the Iberian Salduie.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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