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Julius Caesar Elephant Denarius
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Julius Caesar. 49-48 BC. AR Denarius. Military mint traveling with Caesar.
O: Elephant right, trampling on serpent
R: Emblems of the pontificate - Simpulum, sprinkler, axe and priest's hat.
- Crawford 443/1; Sear (History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators) 9; Sydenham 1006; BMCRR (Gaul) 27; Cohen/RSC 49; Babelon (Voconia) 1; Sear (Roman Coins & Their Values I) 1399. Ex HJBerk 90th Buy or Bid Sale, 4/17/96, Lot 232, listed as Mint state.
Julius Caesar and his armies assembled on the banks of the Rubicon River on 10 January 49 BC, ready to invade Italy. Since large quantities of denarii were necessary to pay Caesar's military expenses, the mint traveled with them. This issue was ordered, not by a moneyer, as was usual, but by Julius Caesar himself. In all likelihood, this type was used by Caesar's military forces at least until the decisive battle of Pharsalus.
"It is the inscription CAESAR in the exergue that has led to the modern identification of the elephant as Caesar. But the exergue is the traditional place for the moneyer’s name and Caesar is separated from the field by the ground line. When Hirtius minted, he put his own name there. Presumably the Caesarian message remained the same with or without CAESAR inscribed on the coin. So whatever that message was, it had to be using symbols easily recognized by the people he was speaking to.
The main problem with a Good over Evil interpretation is that the snake was not a symbol of evil in the pagan Roman mind. As for the elephant, the most frequent use of the elephant on coinage had been by the Metelli. Of all the families of Rome they had done more to connect their name with the elephant image than any other family line. And Metellus Scipio himself even used the elephant again (without snake, of course) after Caesar minted his coin.
As others have pointed out, the other side of the coin with the implements of the pontifex maximus makes an unmistakable reference to Caesar with or without the name Caesar. But that also got me to thinking. Why did he want to advertise that position? Simply put, the main concern of the Roman state religion was the Salus of the state, hence it was Caesar’s chief concern as Pontifex Maximus. If the Metellan elephant was trampling on the Salus of the state, it was his duty as Pontifex Maximus to protect and restore Salus." - mharlan, http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=88757.0
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