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Message:: [QUOTE="Curtisimo, post: 24621267, member: 83845"][ATTACH=full]1565745[/ATTACH]Julius Caesar AR Denarius, African mint, 47-46 BCDia.: 19 mm, 6hWt.: 3.83 gObv.: Diademed head of Venus to rightRev.: Aeneas advancing to left, carrying palladium and Anchises on shoulder; CAESAR downwards to right. Ref.: Crawford 458/1; CRI 55; BMCRR East 31; RSC 12 BackgroundAfter Caesar defeated Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus, most of the remaining Optimates with a will to fight fled to Africa to regroup.  Caesar followed them there in 47 BC. With characteristic boldness he crossed into North Africa during December of 47 BC with only 6 legions.  A storm scattered his fleet and Caesar was forced to fight on a defensive footing for much of the campaign while he regathered his legions and waited for reinforcements.  He fought an indecisive battle outside the city of Ruspina and then delivered a crushing defeat to the Optimates at the Battle of Thapsus on April 6th, 46 BC.  In the aftermath, Cato and Scipio committed suicide while the remaining few holdouts fled to Hispania. These Venus / Aeneas coins were struck at a military mint travelling with Caesar on this campaign in order to pay the soldiers.  The design references part of the mythological story that Virgil would write about in the Aeneid a few decades later. In my opinion, these types are the most interesting of all of Caesar’s coin issues. The Reverse: Aeneas carrying AnchisesThe reverse shows the Trojan hero Aeneas carrying his father Anchises (and the Palladium) out of the city of Troy as it is being sacked by the Greeks.  This scene must have been well known among the Romans because it would later be an episode in Virgil’s Aeneid.<blockquote> “Haste, father, on these bending shoulders climb!This back is ready, and the burden light;one peril smites us both, whate'er befall;one rescue both shall find. Close at my sidelet young Iulus run,… in thy handsbring, sire, our household gods, and sanctifies.” [1]</blockquote> This scene is important for Caesar because the gens Julia (i.e. IVLIA) claim to traced their decent from Iulus, son of Aeneas, who is mentioned in the above passage. Claiming decedent from the hero Aeneas would be honor enough for most families, but we will see below that Caesar goes even farther by claiming a divine lineage. The Obverse: Venus as the Ancestor of Julius CaesarThe obverse of this coin shows a portrait of Venus (Greek Aphrodite). As we discussed above, Julius Caesar was highlighting his claimed ancestry from Aeneas. All of the earliest sources agree (The Iliad of Homer, Theogony of Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite) that Aeneas was the son of Aphrodite (Venus) and Anchises. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite has the fullest account of the story. In it, Zeus becomes angry at Aphrodite for making him lst after mortal women and so he strikes her with a desire for Anchises. Aphrodite lies to Anchises and tells him she is a mortal and that Hermes has brought her to be his bride. The next day she reveals herself and tells him that she will give birth to Aeneas, and threatens that if he reveals to anyone that she is the boy’s mother then Anchises will come to serious harm. Of course, we know that Anchises did reveal that Aphrodite was the mother of Aeneas. In various versions of the story he is either struck blind, killed or made lame by a thunderbolt. Such an injury is perhaps why he needed to be carried by Aeneas in the early Greek versions of the story. Caesar’s decision to highlight this episode from mythology to boast about his own divine ancestry makes this one of my favorite coin types. The theme has been a continuously popular subject in art from Ancient Greece down to the present day. [ATTACH=full]1565747[/ATTACH] Attic vase showing Aeneas carrying Anchises (ca. 500 BC). Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ATTACH=full]1565746[/ATTACH] Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Troy by Simon Vouet, Oil ofCanvas, ca. 1635-40. San Diego Museum of Art (Author’s photo) References [1] <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0055%3Abook%3D2%3Acard%3D692" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0055%3Abook%3D2%3Acard%3D692" rel="nofollow">https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0055:book=2:card=692</a> Please share your Julius Caesar coins, Roman Civil War coins, Trojan War myth coins or anything else you feel is relevant.[/QUOTE]

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