The design is notable for the irony of its use of a portrait of Brutus. The Eid Mar coins of mid-42 B.C., with the pileus or cap of liberty between the daggers that executed Caesar, is Brutus’ final coinage type. Brutus fled and soon waged war against Caesar’s successors.Īfter being proclaimed imperator, Brutus began issuing coins to pay his army. The conspirators, fearful of a tyranny ushered in by Caesar, expected to be hailed as liberators, but the Roman populace was horrified by Caesar’s murder and wanted the assassins punished. Berk.īrutus was one of two chief co-conspirators leading a cabal of Roman senators that surrounded and stabbed Caesar during a Senate proceeding. 1 in a survey of experts for the book 100 Greatest Ancient Coins by Harlan J. The dime-sized coin is famous for the image of its issuer, one of the assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus, on the obverse. The reference is to the assassination of the megalomaniacal dictator Julius Caesar two years earlier, on March 15, 44 B.C. silver denarius is known as the Eid Mar or “Ides of March” coin for the Latin legend EID MAR on the reverse. The pinnacle of self-promotion via numismatic means in ancient Roman times, however, was the Eid Mar silver denarius. The reverse features the Dioscuri, known individually as Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Zeus and Leda. These young gods became widely popular as protectors in a moment of crisis, and a temple was built in their honor.Īs the decades passed, designs for the denomination made way for the political realities of a world where the moneyers (those who struck the coins) and later the rulers themselves, highlighted their own achievements, relationships, or both. Originally worth 10 bronze asses, the denarius coins were redenominated to 16 asses in 145 B.C., a value that was fixed until the final denarii were struck in the 240s A.D.Įarly denarii feature the head of Roma, patroness of the city, on the obverse.
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