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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24853734, member: 128351&quot;]Knowing that I like ancient coins, my colleagues (good friends indeed, i was moved) just offered me a scarce Gaulish coin, a nice one. It&#039;s a coin of Tasgetius, king of the Carnutes and staunch ally of Julius Caesar (well... what a traitor! probably a remote ancestor of Maréchal Pétain?).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1592889[/ATTACH] </p><p>Carnutes, Tasgetius, 60-40 BC, AE 15 mm, 2.16 g.</p><p>Obv.: ЄΛΚЄSΟΟΙΞ, head of Apollo (?) right. </p><p>Rev. TA SG II TI OS, Pegasus galloping right</p><p><br /></p><p>The obv. legend, in Greek letters, remains obscure. <i>Elkesouix</i> sounds Gaulish (like in Asterix). The obv. head of Apollo seems to be imitated from the Roman denarii of C. Calpurnius Piso Frugi minted in 90 BC. The reverse legend, <i>Tasgiitios</i>, the king&#039;s name, is in Latin letters but what is written <i>e</i> in Latin was written <i>ii</i> in Gaulish. </p><p><br /></p><p>Tasgiitios, whom Caesar called &quot;Tasgetius&quot;, was a Gaulish nobleman of royal descent, his ancestors were kings of the Carnutes, the Gaulish &quot;city&quot; whose main sanctuary was at Autrikon or Autricum (today&#039;s Chartres) and the capital was Cenabum, today&#039;s Orléans. The Carnutes seemed to have switched to some form of republican regime. Tasgiitios was pro-Roman and joined Caesar&#039;s army where he commanded a cavalry force. In 57 BC Caesar restored monarchy for the Carnutes and made Tasgiitios their king (well... not Pétain, maybe Louis XVIII?). But his reign did not last long, he was assassinated in 54 BC by opponents. Caesar immediately sent a legion to occupy the territory of the Carnutes, but things worsened and the Carnutes revolted. In 53 BC there was an uprising in Cenabum where all Roman expats (merchants, for most of them) were massacred. This triggered a general Gallic insurrection led by the Arvernian king Vercingetorix, a well-known story. </p><p><br /></p><p>Specialists seem to consider that these coins could have been minted under Tasgiitios&#039; reign but also after his death, they are not dated strictly 57-54 BC but more widely 60-40 BC. </p><p><br /></p><p>This is my first Gaulish coin ! I don&#039;t know why I had none at all until now. I even had a few Persian and even Ethiopian ancient coins, but not a single one from my own land... I am seriously considering acquiring some more Gaulish coins in the future.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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