I wasn't familiar with this coin and colony prior to seeing it last week when I purchased it. And at first I figured it was a halved Nemausus (like the one @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix recently got and posted), but though it's also from Gaul, it is from the Roman colony of Vienna, modern day Vienne in France (not to be confused with Vienna in Austria, as that was known by the Romans as Vindobona). This one has the same early dupondius chunkiness as the Nemausus (this coin predates the Nemausus coin by nearly a decade) and the similar dual opposing busts on obverse. With this coin, though, the opposing busts were Octavian facing right and Julius Caesar facing left. And the reverse shows a quinquireme, a five-rowed warship with castle-like superstructure on top. https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com Of course, my example only retains half the coolness: the bar head of Caesar himself, and the prow of the ship with only a bit of the mast remaining. There is no legends left, so this coin must have been loved and used thoroughly. Octavian, as Imperator (43-27 BC), with Divus Julius Caesar (died 44 BC) Vienna, Gaul (Vienne, France) AE “Halved” Dupondius, Struck 36 BC Obverse: [•IMP• above, DIVI•IULI•CAESAR left and below, DIVI•F• right], bare heads of Julius Caesar facing left, [and Octavian facing right, back to back]. Reverse: Prow of quinquireme right, decorated with eye; mast right; [surmounted with multi-story forecastle and standard or corvus above]; [C•I•V above.] References: RPC I 517, SNG Copenhagen 703 Size: 30mm, 7.44g Vienna was conquered by the Romans in 121 BC, and was transformed into an official Roman colony in 47 BC by Julius Caesar. In between that time, 61 BC specifically, there was an uprising of the Gaul people which was squashed by the Romans, but those that were expelled during it ended up founding Lugdunum (Lyon, France). Lugdunum would eventually become more important than Vienna. And interestingly, in 69 AD, Lugdunum would plead to Vitellius to destroy Vienna during his transition to power; that did not happen. The reverse of this coin could be promoting many naval battles that occured before or near 36 BC, but the most likely to which it pertains to is the battle on September 3rd, when Agrippa defeated Sextus Pompey in a major naval engagement off Naulochus in Sicily. Prior to becoming Augustus, Octavian was building his legitimacy to ruling the empire by drawing connections to his adoption of the deified Caesar, calling it out in the legend (DIVI F, divi filius, "son of a god"), of which my coin has none remaining. Do you have this coin in whole and in better condition? Could you share it? Or share anything else you deem relevant. Thanks!
I used to look for one sowing he other half but never found the coin. Whole ones tend to be over my price bracket.
Yea, I was the underbidder on an Octavian half just over the weekend, looking for the partner to my new coin half. Pretty nice example, yours still has an IM!
Interesting write-up @Justin Lee . I’ll go to bed less stupid tonight. If we go even further in time, the oldest halved coins found in early military camps are republican asses with the head of the god Janus on the obverse and the bow of a ship on the reverse. Other coins cut in half and even quartered were early asses from the period 42-31 BC with the portrait of Julius Caesar and Octavian struck in the mint of Lugdunum and the somewhat later asses with the portrait of Agrippa and Octavian struck in Vienna and Arausio and asses with just the head of Octavian from Narbo.
