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Julius Caesar, Imperator and Dictator, Feb - Mar 44 B.C.
"The coin that killed Caesar." The obverse legend declares Caesar is "Dictator for Life" and he wears the veil, symbolic of his life-term position as Pontifex Maximus. Caesar would be both the dictator and high priest of Rome for the remainder of his life, but his life would end only a few weeks after this coin was struck. For Caesar to put his image on coins and in effect declare himself king was too much for Brutus and his republican allies. On the Ides of March (15 March) 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed to death by as many as 60 conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius. According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theater of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The ides of March have come," meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied, "Aye, Caesar, but not gone." This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March." Minted for Caesar's planned Parthian war, this type was often carelessly struck indicating the mint was working under great pressure.
SH76555. Silver denarius, Crawford 480/7b, Sear CRI 104a, BMCRR I Rome 4155, Sydenham 1062, RSC I Julius Caesar 24, SRCV I 1410, VF, attractive iridescent toning, uneven strike, contact marks, graffiti, Rome mint, weight 3.273g, maximum diameter 18.2mm, die axis 315o, moneyer L. Aemilius Buca, Feb - Mar 44 B.C.; obverse CAESAR - DICT PERPETVO (starting upper right), wreathed head of Caesar right; reverse Venus seated right, Victory in extended right hand, transverse scepter in left hand, L BVCA downward behind; ex Roma auction 13 (29 Nov 2014), lot 369; ex Andrew McCabe Collection; scarce; SOLD
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