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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 2881213, member: 76194&quot;]Ethnic genocide is not a modern phenomenon. For the Curiosolitae (also known as the Coriosvelites) the end came swift and without mercy in 56 BCE at the hands of Caesars&#039; legions. Their culture was estinguished by rivers of blood, the crushing weight of the legions&#039; shield walls, and showers of Roman Pilae. Those unfortunate to still be alive were rounded and slaughtered, and a fortunate few (if you can even call it fortune), were rounded in cages and sent to the slave markets in Rome. All that&#039;s left as evidence of the life and culture of this once proud yet small celtic tribe are a few place names, scant archaeology, and their coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]690603[/ATTACH]</p><p>CELTIC, Gaul (Armorica). Circa 75-56 BC.</p><p>Curiosolitae tribe</p><p>Billon Stater, 21mm, 6.6g, 3h; Class II.</p><p>Obv.: Crude head right, anchor-shaped nose.</p><p>Rev.: Celticized chariot right; Celticized boar below.</p><p>Reference: P. de Jersey, Coinage in Iron Age Armorica, fig. 51, class II; SCBC 15</p><p><br /></p><p>When JA sold me this coin, all I knew was that it was from the region of Armorica, and not much more. JA ordered a book and will let me know what he finds, but cross referencing the coins of Armorica leads me to believe this is definitely a stater belonging to the Curiosolitae people. Not content with waiting for answers, I did my own research and what I found was shocking heartbreaking. The people who touched the above coin met their ends in the most horrific example of ancient ethnic genocide imaginable.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Curiosolitae allied with their neighbors, the Veneti, when Caesar marched north to the coast of Gaul in 56 BCE. Together with a few other coastal tribes, this Veneti confederacy stood up to the might of Rome and engaged Caesar&#039;s legions in some of the most brutal sea battles in the ancient world.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]690620[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The fleets under Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (one of Caesar&#039;s legates and a distant cousin of the famous Brutus who murdered Caesar) suffered serious losses and struggled to defeat this confederacy. Caesar was so furious that when the end came, he unleashed genocide upon these people and erased them from history.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have to confess that when I now look at this denarius of Caesar, part of me can&#039;t help but think that besides looking at a great conqueror and Roman politician, and behind the propaganda and praise from historians, there is a bit of an ancient Stalin or Pol Pot staring back at us sitting high atop a large mountain of Gallic bones.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]690627[/ATTACH]</p><p>Julius Caesar lifetime portrait denarius</p><p><br /></p><p>Luckily for Caesar, the victor wrote his own history, and those horrified Roman patricians who criticized his campaigns of ethnic genocide were all killed by his political successors, Octavian and Antony. Add a few flashy Roman triumps and 2,000 years of time elapsed, and the images of those fields covered with the bones of his 1,000,000 human victims have beem mostly forgotten by our selective memory. We all ignore the blood and bask in his &quot;glory&quot;, political victories, showy triumphs, affair with Cleopatra, and of course his murder.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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