Today I received my tenth Republican coin. Reverse just teeming with action. T Cloelius AR Denarius. 128 BC. ROMA, head of Roma right, wearing a winged helmet, laurel wreath behind / Victory in biga right, horses rearing; grain ear below, T CLOVLI in ex. Cloulia 1, Crawford 260/1; Syd 516. 19 mm, 3,83 g Post yours or similar
Caius Cassius, moneyer in 126 BC. Denarius, Rome, AR 18 mm, 3.78 g Obv.: Helmeted head of Roma right, in left field X with transverse bar (monogram for XVI), voting urn Rev.: C·CASSI / ROMA, Libertas in quadriga, right, holding reins and rod (vindicta) in left hand and pileus in right hand The gens Cassia was always devoted to the defence of Libertas. The voting urn on obverse is an allusion to the Lex Cassia Tabellaria passed 11 years before in 137 BC by L. Cassius Longinus Ravilla, plebeian tribune and probably father of the young money magistrate. This law instated the secret vote by casting a tablet in an urn in judicial assemblies. This was done for the liberty of the jurors... The reverse represents the goddess Libertas, Liberty. She is holding a long vindicta, a rod with which slaves were symbolically touched to be declared free, and a pileus, the cap of freedmen (I don't know if freedwomen had to wear it too). The same symbols can be found in the late 18th c. on early US coins celebrating Liberty. (not my American half-cent) This Roman denarius may be the first coin ever showing Liberty. On Roman republican and imperial coinage Libertas is always seen holding the pileus, as if she was about to place it on some freed slave's head. On late 18th c. American and French allegorical images, this pileus was assimilated with a Phrygian cap and Liberty started wearing it herself instead of just holding it. Today in France the €uro coins still represent Liberty wearing her Phrygian liberty cap, she is colloquially nicknamed "Marianne".
A lovely coin with a dynamic reverse! I don't have one, but I'll attach my first republican coin (purchased at London Coinex I think). It also has some action in the form of a rearing or 'springing' panther.
Here is a T Cloelius Quinarius from 98 BCE. SEAR 212: Laur. hd. of Jupiter r, control letter behind before or below (F) Rev: Victory stg r crowning trophy at foot of which is seated captive and carnyx. T CLOVLI (L in mongram) between, Q in ex RRC 332/1 CRR 586-586b, RSC Cloulia 2-2b; Sear 212 Cloelius, a known partisan of the Marian faction, strikes as quaestor and celebrates Marius' victories
Nice seated captive reverse. My T Cloelius is commonly believed to be the Father of your T Cloelius who started minting coins in 98 BC.
Thank you. I was too lazy to chase down their relationship, but knew that they had to be generational family ties.
