Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR
Denarius (18mm, 3.42 g, 6h). Uncertain
mint. Struck circa 17 BC.
Bare head right within oak
wreath /
Candelabrum ornamented with rams' heads, within
wreath entwined with bucrania and paterae.
RIC I 540;
RSC 2.
Text from
CngAnyone have a theory and thought on this
portrait from an uncertain
mint? Gaius
Caesar or
Augustus.
R. Prideaux (
Triton XI, lot 829) observes that this is a much discussed
issue, primarily about the identity of the person depicted on the
obverse. The young
head cannot be that of C.
Caesar, as
Sutherland,
Robertson, Giard, and others have argued. It can only be
Augustus, as
the oak
wreath was
his personal signature.
Prideaux notes that two important questions need to be examined: (1)
why is he portrayed with such a young
face and (2) what is the meaning
of this unusual
reverse? On the first point, the engraver wasn’t
working in a regular
mint, with
mint approved
bust models, and wasn’t
accustomed to drawing
Augustus’
face. Therefore, he drew a generic
profile adding the oak
wreath to identify, beyond any doubt, the
portrait. On the second point, it seems clear that, based on the
symbolism, there is not only a religious, but a funeral theme. It is
interesting to note that the sadness of the funeral-themed
reverse is
counterbalanced by a young
portrait and the oak
wreath, corona civica
aurea, which was given to the citizen who saved another citizen’s life.
Some have assigned this issue to the
Ludi Saeculares of 17 BC, but
while they were religious in nature, they were not funereal.
There is no reason for such a special
type to have been issued in
Rome or
Lugdunum. Prideaux notes one striking event in the period after 17
BC that supports
his theory. In 12 BC,
Augustus’ chosen heir,
Agrippa,
died suddenly in
Pannonia. We know that the news was taken hard in
Rome, just months after
Agrippa and
his family
had been officially made
the heirs of the Empire (
cf. C.
Marius Tromentina’s issues in 13 BC).
This event especially reverberated among the legions; they
had lost a
much admired and multi-victorious general in the middle of a difficult
war.
Prideaux proposes that this
candelabrum issue was struck in
Pannonia to
pay the now leaderless, and perhaps restless, Pannonian legions,
without having to wait for a monetary delivery from the regular
mint in
very distant
Lugdunum. A local celator, not versed in the
portrait of
Augustus, produced the dies. The
themes reminded the soldiers of
Augustus’ corona civica, while paying tribute to their beloved chief
with a funeral set. The gold and silver issues (
RIC 539-40) should be
considered as a special Pannonian
military mint issue of 12 BC. This
helps explain many of the puzzling details of this issue.
The youthful
head on this controversial coin was identified by
Cohen as
Caius, the grandson and adoptive heir of
Augustus;
Mattingly, in
RIC I (1st ed.), rejected this
identification in favor of a "rejuvenated"
Augustus, a view supported by other cataloguers in recent years. In the
new edition of
Roman Coins and Their Values, however, David
Sear returns to the original
identification of
Caius Caesar. He convincingly
argues that the features of the young
head bear little resemblance to
earlier
portraits of Octavian/Augustus, and that the title
CAESAR under
the image seems to refer to the young heir, while the name
AVGVSTVS is
relegated to the
reverse. Finally, the timing of the
type, issued the
same year which saw the birth of Caius' brother
Lucius and the adoption
of both by
Augustus, favors an
identification as
Caius.