61, Lot: 136. Estimate $200. Sold for $170. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

L. Julius L.f. Caesar. 103 BC. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.92 gm). Helmeted head of Mars left; •D• above / Venus Genetrix driving biga left, drawn by two Cupids; lyre before them, •D• above. Crawford 320/1; Sydenham 593a; Julia 4a. Toned, good VF, light porosity.

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

L. Julius Caesar, a member of the gens Iulia and, thereby, a relative of Caesar the Dictator, was one of the earliest members of the family to attain the consulship. Governor of Macedonia in 94 BC, and consul during the Social War, he passed the basic law which offered Roman citizenship to the Italian allies; as censor along with P. Licinius Crassus, grandfather of the triumvir, he helped to enroll the first of them. He was an opponent of Marius and was killed on the latter's return to Rome in 87 BC. He was also the grandfather of Mark Antony.