Hello everyone, I would like to share with you my new addition to my small collection of ancient coins. Nothing too rare, beautiful or special but I am very happy with it. I like coins from the Roman republic, but since they are often a bit too expensive for me in decent quality... I only got a BAEBIA denarius and a low quality As (which is, however, probably the most interesting coin of my collection for a particular reason). I saw this one being for sale for what I believe to be a (very) reasonable price so I couldn't resist. It has a nice dark grey shiny patina that doesn't appear well on the pics. LICINIA denarius - Lucius Licinius Macer (84 BC) 4,15g / 20mm This denarius is quite common. Crawford estimates about 250 obverse dies and 278 reverse dies. On a number of 100,454 coins found in hoard, 648 were this very denarius. That makes it less common than the Elephant denarius of Caesar, but still more common than most of the roman republican denarii. The obverse shows the heroic bust of Vediovis, head turned to left, holding thunderbolt with his left hand and cloak over his left shoulder. Vediovis, also named Vejovis, was a roman deity, god of war and revenge. He was considered to be the master of volcanos, earthquakes, swamps and of all the similar deep and meaningful places or phenomenons on earth. He was also the support of all rebels and unruled people, and was supposed to bring them strenght, will and energy in their fights against injustice, in exchange for a total worship. He is depicted as a young man, holding a pilum or a tunderbolt, often alongside a goat. Vediovis is sometimes identified as the dark side of Apollo, or with a Jupiter of the darkness. He was worshipped officially in Rome since the begin of the 2nd century BC, but was already a Etruscan god before that. He was sometimes depicted on coins, such as this one. Actually, the bust of this LICINIA denarius is a slavish copy of the heroic bust that can be found on the denarius struck in 112-111 BC for Lucius Caesius (CAESIA). On these denarii, the style of the portrait varies quite a lot, from greatly depicted and realistic to approximate. The reverse shows Minerva, holding shield and spear, driving a quadriga. Beneath this depiction is the legend C. LICINIVS. L. F. (Caius Licinius Lucii Filius Macer = Caius Licinius, son of Lucius Macer). It is believed that this Lucius Licinius Macer was the historian who wrote the history of Rome in sixteen books (quite huge, eh). Unfortunately, only some parts of it reached us. He h quaestor, tribune of the plebs and praetor. He was accused of extortion by Cicero, and committed suicide in 66 BC in order not to bring dishonor to his family. Speaking about his family, the gens LICINIA played a quite important role during the whole history of ancient Rome. In 493 BC, a Licinii was already tribune of the plebs. After that, the Licinii held almost all important functions of the Roman Republic. However, their story do not end with the Roman Republic. After Octavian, the Licinii kept playing an important role in Rome. Two members of the gens even became emperors : Publius Licinius Valerianus, commonly known as Valerian, and Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus, his son Gallienus. The emperor Licinius, Flavius Galerius Valerius Licinianus Licinius, is sometimes said to belong to the Licinii. That's all folks, I hope you learned something new and you enjoyed reading my post. I hope I didn't make too many language or historical mistakes. Thanks for reading.
Very beautiful coin, @Choucas! Also a very informative and enlightening post following! I'm not an RR collector, but day-by-day I'm learning more and my interest is growing. Thank you!
Excellent write-up. Mine is missing the second line of the legend but shows the distinctive obverse weapon.
