Featured Roman Republican Denarius No. 50: C. Calpurnius Piso L.f. Frugi

Exactly a year ago (according to a previous version of the personal coin catalog I keep), I owned 16 Roman Republican denarii. I remember vaguely thinking around that time that perhaps someday I would reach 50, but I certainly never thought I would get there this quickly. Will I stop at 50, or keep going? We shall see.

One of my first few Roman Republican coins was this denarius of L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, minted in 90 BCE, from one of the largest coin issues (if not the largest) of the Republic, and undoubtedly one of the better-known types. The coin is nothing spectacular, but I still find it very appealing:

Roman Republic, L. [Lucius] Calpurnius Piso Frugi, AR Denarius, 90 BCE. Obv. Head of Apollo right (control marks H behind and F below) / Rev. Horseman galloping right w/palm frond (control marks G above and H below), L• PISO FRUGI beneath. Crawford 340/1, RSC I Calpurnia 11, Sear RCV I 235/1, BMCRR 1938-2129 [this combination of two-letter control marks is not recorded in BMCRR; cf. BMCRR 2120 (H, F on obv. paired with C, A on rev.)]. 17 mm., 4.02 g.



I've known since I bought this coin and did some reading about it that almost 30 years later, Lucius's son was also a moneyer, and was responsible for an issue with the same basic Apollo/horseman design. I've wanted to own an example of that issue ever since, but soon discovered that although the issue is definitely not rare (perhaps half the size of Lucius's), nice examples tend to be much more expensive, perhaps because they were struck in high relief and are generally considered to be quite "artistic." So it took me a long time to find one I could afford that was still nice enough for me to want to buy it. I finally saw one I really liked a couple of weeks ago that wasn't too expensive for me -- and has a very beautiful portrait of Apollo! -- and here it is. Together with an extra-long footnote to celebrate my 50th Roman Republican denarius!

Roman Republic, C. [Caius/Gaius] Calpurnius Piso L.f. [son of Lucius] Frugi [son-in-law of Cicero, married to Tullia], AR Denarius, 67-59 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate head of Apollo right in high relief, hair long and in ringlets; behind, control symbol ɸ (Greek letter phi) (Crawford obverse die 32; Hersh 1976* obverse die O-33) / Rev. Naked horseman galloping right wearing shaped conical cap, holding reins but carrying no palm branch or other object; above, control symbol sword [Crawford] or knife [Hersh 1976] with curved blade [Crawford reverse die 43, Hersh 1976 reverse die R-1038]; beneath horse, C• PISO• L• F• FRVG [with VG blurred on die]. Crawford 408/1a [Apollo laureate rather than wearing fillet]; BMCRR Rome 3774 [this die combination]; Hersh 1976 at p. 32, Corpus No. 89 [this die combination]; RSC I Calpurnia 24j [Apollo laureate/horseman wearing conical cap & carrying no palm branch or other object]; Harlan, Michael, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins 63 BCE - 49 BCE (2d ed. 2015) (“Harlan RRM II”), Ch. 7 at pp. 54-59; Sear RCV I 348; Sydenham 846. 18 mm., 3.86 g. 6 h. [Double die-match to Ira & Larry Goldberg Auction 80, Lot 3048, 03.06.2014, previously sold by LHS Numismatik AG, Auction 100, Lot 398, 23/04/2007. ]**




* Hersh, Charles A., “A Study of the Coinage of the Moneyer C. Calpurnius Piso L.f. Frugi,” The Numismatic Chronicle, Seventh Series, Vol. 16 at pp. 7-63 (1976). Available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/42664788?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents).

** The basic design of this type -- the head of Apollo on the obverse, and a naked horseman racing on the reverse, with nearly 500 known different die combinations and configurations of control symbols, objects held by the horseman, etc. -- is the same as the design of the massive issue of the moneyer’s father Lucius, dating to 90 BCE (Crawford 340/1), with more than 1,000 known die combinations, issued to aid in funding the Social War. Both issues “recall the Ludi Apollinares [the annual games held in honor of Apollo], converted into a permanent festival as a result of the proposal of C. Calpurnius Piso, [urban] Pr[aetor] [in] 211,” an ancestor of our father-and-son moneyers. See Crawford Vol. I p. 344; see also Hersh 1976 p. 8 (the design of Crawford 408 is a “direct reference” to the annual Ludi Apollinares proposed by the moneyer’s ancestor); Harlan RRM II at p. 56 (explaining that the Ludi Apollinares were made permanent in the same year, 211, in which Hannibal broke off his assault on Rome without ever joining battle, an outcome ascribed to Apollo’s divine intervention)..

Varying dates for the son’s issue (Crawford 408/1a-1b), according to different authorities, include the following:

67 BCE (Crawford, RSC I, RBW Collection, Sear RCV I [but see Sear RCV I at p. 138, citing Crawford’s date but noting the “hoard evidence which would seem to indicate a period of issue closer to 60 BC”]);

64 BCE (BMCRR);

63 BCE (Hersh 1976 at p. 8);

61 BCE (Charles Hersh and Alan Walker, “The Mesagne Hoard,” Museum Notes (American Numismatic Society), 1984, Vol. 29 pp. 103-134 (1984) [“Hersh & Walker 1984”], at Table 2, No. 27);

59 BCE (Harlan RRM II at Ch. 7 p. 57).

The different theories over the years for the date of this issue have been based primarily on various known events in the life of the moneyer (“Caius”) -- including the basic premise that Caius must have been moneyer prior to his appointment as quaestor in 58 BCE and his death in 57 BCE -- and in the life of his father-in-law Cicero, as well as on stylistic evidence and, perhaps most significantly, on hoard evidence.

For example, Crawford’s proposed date of 67 BCE was the year when Caius’s relative Gaius Calpurnius Piso was consul and when Caius himself -- born either in 89 BCE (Harlan RRM II p. 57) or 87 BCE (Hersh 1976 p. 8) -- was betrothed to Cicero’s only daughter Tullia, then 9 years old. (See Harlan RRM II p. 54, quoting Cicero’s letter to Atticus from late 67 BCE: “We have betrothed little Tullia to [C]aius Piso Frugi, son of Lucius.”)

But Harlan argues that Caius was far too young in 67 BCE, at only 22 or 20, to serve as a mint magistrate. And Hersh 1976’s comprehensive die study points out (at p. 8) that Caius and Tullia “were married in 63 BC, when Cicero was consul.” Therefore, Hersh proposes that Caius “probably was a moneyer during 63 BC,” during Cicero’s consulship.

However, perhaps most persuasively, Hersh & Walker 1984 dated the issue at 61 BCE based on the evidence of the Mesagne Hoard of 5,940 denarii, which was discovered in 1979/1980, and buried ca. 58 BCE (see p. 103). The hoard contained 198 coins of Caius (id. p. 112), in the top five of all the issues in the hoard, right behind the 199 coins from the still-circulating issue of his father Lucius (id. pp. 108-109). Crucially, “in the Mesagne hoard the coins of [Caius] . . . were in almost mint condition, where not marred by corrosion during burial,” unlike the heavily-circulated coins from older issues. Therefore, “[Caius], who was Cicero's son-in-law, must have been a moneyer in ca. 60 B.C.,” given that “he died in 57 B.C., after his term as quaestor in 58 B.C. had been completed.” (Id. p. 133.) Thus, in the article’s chart of assigned dates based on the Mesagne Hoard, Hersh & Walker settled on 61 BCE as the date for the issue. (See id. Table 2, No.27.) Harlan theorizes, however, that Caius’s “most immediate need to remind the voters of his family traditions” -- i.e., by issuing coins with the same basic design as the huge and still-circulating issue of his father Lucius from 90 BCE -- “came just prior to his election as quaestor for 58, and I, therefore, date the coin to 59.” Harlan RRM II at p. 57.

Harlan’s date has not been adopted by other authorities, so far as I know. Surprisingly, even Hersh & Walker’s well-supported date of 61 BCE, proposed almost 40 years ago, has been ignored by more dealers than have followed it. Instead, Crawford’s 67 BCE date continues to be widely used. For example, both Dr. Martina Dieterle and Shanna Schmidt currently have examples for sale described as being from 67 BC. And even the highly-regarded RBW Collection catalog, published in early 2014, uses 67 BCE as the date for the 23 coins of C. Calpurnius Piso L.f. Frugi it includes -- not mentioning the 61 BCE date in Hersh & Walker 1984, or even the 63 BCE date proposed in Hersh 1976, despite citing and relying upon the latter study. At least David Sear’s RCV I (Millennium Edition), although placing the issue in 67 BCE, notes at p. 138 that the hoard evidence places the issue “closer to 60 BC” (see above).

In any event, Caius’s term as quaestor was preoccupied with his father-in-law’s exile, and he did not live long thereafter. See Hersh 1976 at p. 8: “While in office [Caius] devoted his efforts to trying to obtain the recall of Cicero from banishment in Macedonia, whither he had gone following he legislation sponsored by his enemy, Publius Clodius Pulcher. At the end of his quaestorship [Caius] was allotted the provinces of Pontus and Bithynia, but he remained in Rome to continue his efforts on Cicero’s behalf. He died during the early summer of 57 B.C., before the return of Cicero to Italy on 5 August 57 B.C., following his recall.” See also Harlan RRM II at p. 59, quoting at length from Cicero’s tribute to his son-in-law in his Brutus, written eleven years later in 46 BCE. Cicero stated, among other things, “I have never known anyone with greater zeal and industry -- although I might easily say, anyone even with more talent, who surpassed my son-in-law [C]aius Piso. . . . [H]e seemed to fly not to run. . . . I do not think that there was anyone who could compare with him in self-control and piety and in every other virtue.”

Now to the coins themselves. As noted above, the two basic types of Crawford 408 are 408/1a (laureate head of Apollo) and 408/1b (Apollo’s hair tied with a taenia or fillet). Thus, my coin is classified as part of Crawford 408/1a, the smaller of the two types. Crawford tallies 53 obverse dies and 59 reverse dies for type 1a, with type 1b nearly three times as large -- 144 obverse dies and 175 reverse dies. (See Crawford pp. 419 & 435, and Table XLIII at pp. 420-434, listing all the dies of both types known to Crawford in 1974.)

Two years after Crawford, the die study in Hersh 1976 listed 57 obverse dies and 62 reverse dies for the Crawford 1a type (variously denominated Section I and “Linkage Group A” by Hersh), and 147 obverse dies and 170 reverse dies for the Crawford 1b type (Linkage Groups B & C or Sections II & III under the Hersh classification; the slight differences between those two types are irrelevant to my “Group A” coin). (See Hersh 1976 p. 10.)

Crawford’s table attempted to classify the various die combinations by treating the differences in the horsemen on the reverses as the controlling factors, whereas Hersh’s study of all the die interlinkages “revealed that the obverses, not the reverses, were the regulating element of the issue. Whether the Apollo head was laureate or whether it was bound instead by a taenia or fillet was the key factor and the varied attributes of the horseman on the reverse dies were merely unimportant, if interesting, variations of the main type, probably used as an auxiliary control.” (Hersh 1976 pp. 9-10.)

The die study in Hersh 1976 reached the conclusion that more than one officina was involved in the production of this moneyer’s denarii. See p. 11:



Hersh also discusses, at pp. 9-10 and 11, the artistic aspects of the different types, apparently produced by different officinae.

First, at pp. 9-10, Hersh discusses the artistic aspects in terms of the different “Sections” (my laureate Apollo coin is in Section I). Obviously, he was fond of the issue!

"The physical appearance of the coins themselves is most satisfying and interesting. The laureate heads of Apollo on some of the obverse of this issue (Section I) are of superior workmanship and have some of the most artistically excellent portraits in the entire Roman Republican series." (Emphasis added.) That's quite a compliment! Hersh goes on to state: "Perhaps the


Then, at p, 11, he discusses the coins’ artistry again, this time in terms of laureate Apollo heads vs. heads bound with a taenia, with my coin belonging to the former type:

“As


Even if the laureate head/Section I/Group A coins are not struck in as high a relief as the taenia/fillet type, I should note that my example, at least, is struck in higher relief than any other Roman Republican coin I own. But I do agree with Hersh’s high opinion of the artistic merit of the laureate Apollo. It’s certainly more notable than the artistry of my Lucius Piso Frugi example. Such a beautiful young god!

At pp. 17-25 of Hersh 1976, the author individually lists and describes each known obverse die and reverse die. (At p. 21, there is a key to the coding of the various attributes of the reverse dies.) My coin, as noted above, is Hersh Obv. Die O-33 (= Crawford Obv. Die 32). Here is the portion of the obverse die table showing Obv. Dies O-23 through O-34, with O-33 being the control-symbol ɸ (the Greek letter phi). Note that O-33 is linked to only one other reverse die besides my R-1038 die:




And here is the portion of the reverse die table including my Hersh Rev. Die R-1038 (= Crawford Rev. Die 43). Hersh calls the control-symbol a curved knife, while Crawford calls it a curved sword. To me, it looks more like a sword. Just as my obverse die links to only one other reverse die besides mine, my reverse die links to only one other obverse die besides mine:



The “B" shown for R-1038's reverse legend, as explained in the key at p. 21, is for the legend "C• PISO• L• F• FRVG." (In other variations, the final word of the legend is spelled "FRVGI," "FRV," or "FR," or the PISO is spelled "PIS.") The "CX" refers to the horseman wearing a conical cap, and not carrying anything. Out of the 62 reverse dies in Hersh’s Group A/Section I (i.e., those linked to the Apollo laureate head obverses), my coin’s reverse die is one of only five on which the horseman carries nothing (no palm branch, whip, etc.). On three of those five, the horseman is winged. So there is only one other reverse die (R-1006) on which the horseman carries nothing and has no wings to aid him instead!

At pp. 26-60, Hersh 1976 also individually describes each of the 486 known die combinations, in a “Corpus of the Coins of C. Calpurnius L.F. Frugi.” A number of additional varieties have been discovered since Hersh 1976; see Hersh & Walker 1984 at pp. 20-23, listing several found in the Mesagne Hoard; RBW Collection p. 302 (note following no. 1459). (As mentioned above, there are more than 1,000 die combinations known for the Apollo/horseman issue of the moneyer’s father Lucius [Crawford 340] -- i.e., more than twice as many as for Caius’s issue. There has never been a die study published for Crawford 340; the one referenced at Crawford p. 340 as “forthcoming,” to be co-authored by R. Grassby, never came forth.)

My die combination for Crawford 408/1a is No 89 in the Hersh 1976 Corpus, at p. 32:


Hersh lists only four other specimens of my die combination, one at the British Museum (already noted above in my coin description), one at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, one at the Vatican, and one in the author’s personal collection. All are presumably double-die matches, since it appears that only one die was made matching each description in Hersh 1976. In addition (unless it is the same coin owned by Hersh as of 1976), one other example of Hersh’s Corpus No. 89 is listed on acsearch. It was sold by Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, Inc., Auction 80, Lot 348, on 03.06.2014, for $1,400, and was previously sold by LHS Numismatik AG, Auction 100, Lot 398, on 23/04/2007, for $1,100. See
https://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=2012900:




The coin is clearly a double-die match to mine. My example is clearly not as nice -- it’s considerably more worn (compare Apollo's hair, the horse's head, etc.), and it looks in hand like someone may have tried to polish it at some point -- but I paid only a rather small fraction of those auction prices! More importantly, I’m very, very happy with mine.

I suppose that the line going up from the top of Apollo’s head to the edge on both coins is a die-break or some other die flaw. I also assume that the teardrop-shaped object hanging down from the back of Apollo’s head on both coins is supposed to be some kind of hair-tie or ribbon. It’s not mentioned in any description of the die, but somewhat resembles the hair-tie in a similar position in my example of Crawford 340, from Lucius’s issue.

If anyone's gotten this far, please post your own examples from the Piso Frugi issues -- whether from the son or the father -- along with any thoughts you may have on the issues.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

My only one.


L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi (90 B.C.)
O: Laureate Head of Apollo right; symbol behind.
R: L PISO FRVGI, horseman, holding palm frond and reins, on horse galloping right; symbol below.
Rome Mint, 90 B.C.
3.33g
19mm
Crawford 340/

 

Here are a few:

Crawford 340/1:



Some 408/1b (can't find any 1a pics):







Phil Davis

 

Well, I got that far but have no dog in this fight. Perhaps my lack of respect for the oligarchy hinders my interest. My coins of the type were shown on my page on the matter written long ago reflecting information then available and not since updated. The fact that I was then using the 67 BC date for Gaius means nothing. The fact that I moved the page to my poor quality pages section rather than updating it means more about my unwillingness to accept any of the arguments. Those who want to read what I had to say in 2000 are welcome but, please, don't quote me.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/acmfrugi.html

The coins are two rather ordinary examples of the father and a fourree of the son.
The three were selected partly as numbers illustrating the relative die life of obverse and reverse or showing how the dies were numbered but largely because they were in my price bracket. The first is sword / D star


Second is 77 / 94 showing the down arrow L (50) and the subtractive numeral 94 (XCIV). Please don't tell my Latin teacher about Romans using subtractive numerals. She would be over 120 now and might be shocked.


Most and least at the same time is my fourree of the son. As Donna pointed out, nice ones of these are harder to find. This fourree found me in 1989 and never was upgraded.


The few that read my page may have noted I mentioned the rocking horse pose which is completely unnatural as was shown by the 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge's experiments in the photography of motion. As a photographer, I found this matter quite interesting both then and now. Muybridge's motion work came around the time he was acquitted of the killing of his wife's lover on the grounds of justifiable homicide. I always wondered, had he been convicted, how long it would have been before someone else realized that horses di not run this way. The legal system came through on the side of art and science. It might be noted that his legal bills were underwritten by Leland Stanford who was commissioning Muybridge to settle the horse question once and for all so one might also wonder how the case would have been resolved had there not been this patronage. This might seem out of place in a coin discussion but these coins do show that the Romans shared the erroneous belief of the 19th century that horses ran with this pose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge

 

Here is my Piso Frugi, which is one of my favorite RR coins. I’m at 32 RR denarii now. It’s a slow moving project, just like all my collecting areas. I think Donna will get to 100 before I get to 50.

Congrats on the new coin, and thank you for an informative post, Donna!

 

Gorgeous coins, everyone. Thanks for posting them! It's interesting to me that on a number of the father's coins, including mine, Apollo's nose seems to begin right up near his hairline! On the son's coins, the profile tends to be a little more naturalistic. Perhaps it was the influence of those putatively Greek engravers Hersh extols!

@dougsmit, I clearly remember reading about the Muybridge experiment in a book called "Archaeology of the Cinema," by C.W. Ceram, that I was given when I was 11 or so because of my interest in old movies. (Not quite that old, usually!) It seems that there were others conducting all sorts of photographic experiments at the time, like Marey in France and Anschutz in Germany, so I'm sure that someone else would have figured out how horses ran before too much longer, even absent Muybridge. Especially given that it was apparently a subject of discussion.

It appears, by the way, that cats do entirely leave the ground. But I think everyone knew that already, even before Muybridge!

 

Thanks! I think it will be quite a while, if ever, before I double my RR coins. They seem to be getting more and more expensive as time passes. Whether that's because the prices for RR coins are rising in general, or because I've run out of the easy, relatively inexpensive, ones, or it's a combination of the two, I'm not sure.

 

Great way to mark 50! A serious stunner
Here's my Frugi Howser M.D. little quini that begs for a reshoot:
L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi. Quinarius 90, AR 15 MM 1.8 g. Laureate head of Apollo r.; below chin, N. Rev. L·P – ISO Victory standing r., holding wreath in r. hand and sword and spear in l.; in exergue, FRVGI. Babelon Calpurnia 13. Sydenham 672c. RBW –. Crawford 340/2f.

 

Impressive write-up ,
this is the only I have from this type , the obverse is struck in high profile if I compare it to others RR denarii from my collection.

L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi , AR Denarius , 90 BC, Crawford-340/1. Sydenham 661
Laureate head of Apollo right, XXXIII behind. Horseman galloping right , palm over shoulder, control numeral XXXXIIII above, L•PISO FRVGI , Roma monogram in exergue.
19.5 mm / 3.71 g

 

Terrific, detailed write-up as always, Donna.

Here are my examples of both types:



Roman Republic Denarius
L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi
(90 B.C.)
Laureate head of Apollo right; symbol behind (T?) / L PISO FRVGI/CXV below horseman galloping right, carrying palm T• below.
Crawford 340/1; Syd. 665a; Calpurnia 11.
(3.70 grams / 19 mm)

Roman Republic Denarius
C. Piso L.f. Frugi
(67 B.C.)
Head of Apollo right, bound with fillet; horse(?) behind / C. PISO L F FRV below, man on horse holding palm-branch galloping right carrying palm; barred-X above.
Cr. 408; Calpurnia 24 - 29a
(3.53 grams / 17 mm)

 

@Marsyas Mike, your C. Piso L.f. Frugi is actually Cr. 408/1a: that's a laureate Apollo, not one with a fillet. With the two control marks, it's a Hersh corpus 54:



Thus, the reverse control-symbol is a barred-X, and the obverse symbol (partially off the flan) looks kind of like h-S. The British Museum has an example. and the Bibliotheque Nationale has two. The reverse legend must be blurred at the end on those copies as well as yours; hence, the ?.

 

@svessien, I think yours is probably Hersh corpus 125, with 2 examples in Paris and one each in Milan, Cambridge, and Turin:




It seems to be one of only a couple of types with a laureate Apollo on the obverse but one of the reverses that otherwise goes with the Apollo wearing a fillet. No control-symbol on the reverse -- just that thing sticking out of the top of the horseman's head that's supposedly a long oonical hat! Personally, I think it looks more like an arrow shooting out of his head.

 

My only one; picture is still from cngcoins (much better than mine).
Apollo has kind of fish eyes here

Rome, 90 BC
18 mm, 3.902 g
Crawford 340/1; Sydenham 663e; RSC I Calpurnia 11;

Ob.: Laureate head of Apollo right; R to left, R below chin
Rev.: Horseman galloping r., holding palm frond and reins; L PISO FRVGI, XVIIII

​

 

@Volodya, your three examples seem to be Hersh corpus nos. 282, 166, and 470 (that's apparently supposed to be a hammer as the control-symbol on the obverse of the third one, with Apollo's head to the left).

 

@DonnaML - even more informative than usual !

These coins are addictive. A few of mine :

 

Congrats on the 50 RR denarius milestone, @DonnaML. Is it just me or has CT gotten a lot quieter lately? Here's my denarius of the father, from the time of the Social Wars, 91-87 BC, that led to the Romanization of Italy.

@dougsmit, I enjoyed your post, on these coins of the Roman oligarchy and this observation: "Others may find humor in the epithet FRVGI (the frugal) used by the man responsible for more denarii than any before him. He was frugal in his duties. Both this coin and the next are good silver weighing 3.7g. We will each see different things of interest in our coins. Such is the hobby."

L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, 90 BC, AR Denarius
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo right; star behind; P below chin
Rev: Naked horseman galloping right, holding long palm; above, D/•
Ref: Crawford 340/1; Sydenham 664; Calpurnia 11

The Victory perhaps a sign of progress in the Social war or hoped for progress. Livy writes of the move to make the Ludi Apollinares permanent in 211 BC (Calpurnius, praetor, and the ancestor of the moneyer).

"The Games of Apollo had been exhibited the previous year, and when the question of their repetition the next year was moved by the praetor Calpurnius, the senate passed a decree that they should be observed for all time."
-Livy XXVI.23.3

Livy challenges the alternate version that the games were made permanent in 208 in response to a severe plague. Here's the quinarius from this series.

L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, 90 BC, AR Quinarius, Rome mint
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo right; bow control mark behind, S: control mark below chin
Rev: PI-SO with victory between, standing left, holding wreath and palm frond over shoulder, FRVGI in exergue
Ref: Crawford 340/2g (control on obv both behind and below chin)

And a coin of the son, Cicero's son-in-law. Gaius was betrothed to Tullia around 66 BC and they subsequently married in 63 BC when both were in their teens.

C. Calpurnius L.f. Frugi, 61 BC, Denarius, Rome
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo to right; behind, CLX
Rev: C PISO L F FRV Horseman galloping right, holding palm frond over his left shoulder; above, Э•
Ref: Babelon (Calpurnia) 24. Crawford 408/1b. RBW

Gaius died in 56 BC and Tullia married Furius Crassipes. Cicero was exiled at the time of Gaius' death and wrote of him:

"That excellent man Piso, my son-in-law, who was not allowed time to receive the reward of his affection, either from me or from the Roman people, kept beseeching his relation to give him back his father-in-law."
-Cicero, Pro Sestius 68

 

My only type of this extensive issue

 

..kool Donna...everyone should have a 'Friggi"....here's my $20.00 special

 

Excellent writeup and cool coin

My only example (90 BC issue)



Q