A Small Offering of Denarii from the Civil War Series

271, Lot: 68. Estimate $2000. Sold for $2300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Civil War. AD 68-69. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.33 g, 8h). Uncertain mint in Spain. BON EVENT, filleted head of Bonus Eventus right / ROM RENASC, Roma standing right, holding crowning Victory in right hand and eagle-tipped scepter in left. RIC I 9; AM 52; RSC 396. VF, toned, porous. Rare.

Property of Princeton Economics acquired by Martin Armstrong. Ex Triton II (1 December 1998), lot 832.

The civil wars at the end of Nero’s reign began with the revolt of the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gaius Julius Vindex, probably around the beginning of March of AD 68. Vindex offered the leadership of the revolt to Servius Sulpicius Galba, then governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, who was hailed imperator by the Spanish legions at Carthago Nova in April of the same year. The title was cautiously refused, but Galba did declare himself the legatus of the senate and people of Rome. Just a month later, Galba’s confidence would be shaken by the crushing defeat of Vindex near Besançon by the general Lucius Verginius Rufus, governor of Germania Superior. By 9 June Nero was dead, having taken his own life. Galba began his march to Rome, and his brief reign was underway.

Coinage, of course, was needed during these precarious months of revolt and without an emperor to strike in the name of (save for that in honor of the “model emperor” of Roman history, Augustus [see lots 73 and 74]) the coinage was struck with messages suiting the political climate. The coinage under Vindex possesses a more aggressive air (see, for example, lot 69) that underscores the militant nature of his revolt, while Galba’s tends to be more constitutional and optimistic in tone (lot 68). Lots 75 and 76 were struck after Galba’s accession, perhaps under Fabius Valens, commander of pro-Vitellian forces.