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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 25407850, member: 128351&quot;][ATTACH=full]1627393[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Caius Cassius, moneyer in 126 BC. Denarius, Rome, AR 18 mm, 3.78 g</p><p>Obv.: Helmeted head of Roma right, in left field X with transverse bar (monogram for XVI), voting urn</p><p>Rev.: C·CASSI / ROMA, Libertas in quadriga, right, holding reins and rod (<i>vindicta</i>) in left hand and <i>pileus</i> in right hand</p><p><br /></p><p>The gens Cassia was always devoted to the defence of Libertas. The voting urn on obverse is an allusion to the <i>Lex Cassia Tabellaria</i> 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...</p><p>The reverse represents the goddess Libertas, Liberty. She is holding a long <i>vindicta</i>, a rod with which slaves were symbolically touched to be declared free, and a <i>pileus</i>, the cap of freedmen (I don&#039;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. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1627394[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="2">(not my American half-cent)</font></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;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 &quot;Marianne&quot;.</p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1627396[/ATTACH]</p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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