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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24481496, member: 128351&quot;]I think the Sulla denarius is the first Roman coin ever to show the image of a living person. On the reverse one can see Sulla crowned by Victory and driving the triumphal quadriga. </p><p><br /></p><p>Ancient Greek and Roman coins never represented living people, unless they were kings (or satraps in the Achemenid Empire). So you can see gods and heroes, kings (or assimilated) and deceased people (assimilated to heroes). Showing a living person who was not a king on a coin was a great taboo. Julius Caesar was assassinated for that: denarii with his portrait started to be minted a few weeks before 3/15/BC44... </p><p><br /></p><p>This taboo is still valid, at least in Europe. On our €uro coins we can see the images of Felipe king of Spain, Philippe king of the Belgians, Willem Alexander king of the Netherlands, Henri grand duke of Luxembourg... But no president or prime minister for the countries which are republics. Even under the IIIrd Reich German coins never depicted the Fuehrer, even the USSR did not have Stalin on the coins. When France was occupied by Germany from 1940 to 1944 the Vichy regime attempted to mint coins with the head of Marechal Pétain. The Germans said it was streng verboten and these coins never circulated. </p><p><br /></p><p>Thus, the Sulla triumphal denarius is an interesting document: it&#039;s Sulla, but so small one cannot be certain... If people had started to protest saying Sulla was attempting to pose as king and restore monarchy in Rome, they could pretend it was not him, just the parking valet.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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