Perpetual Dictator
The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. February-March 44 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.41 g, 7h). Rome mint. P. Sepullius Macer, moneyer. Wreathed head of Caesar right; CAESAR downwards before, DICT PERPETVO upwards behind / Venus Victrix standing left, holding Victory in outstretched right hand and with left, resting on vertical scepter set on shield; P SEPVLLIVS downwards to right, MACER downwards to left. Crawford 480/10; Alföldi type VIII (unlisted dies); CRI 107a; Sydenham 1073; RSC 38. Good VF, lightly toned, overstruck on an earlier (possibly serrated) issue. Well centered, and with a strong portrait.
Ex Künker 262 (13 March 2015), lot 7797.
Before 44 BC, Roman coin portraiture had been confined to various deities and historic figures of renown, these usually ancestors of the moneyers appointed each year to strike coins. The very few portraits of living Romans were confined to coins minted and circulating outside of Italy. But early in 44 BC, the Senate granted Julius Caesar, recently appointed Dictator for the fourth time, the honor of having his portrait placed on silver coinage struck in Rome. The break with tradition was sudden, startling and, as it turned out, enduring, for Caesar’s successors (and even his assassins!) soon adopted the practice. This denarius, struck in February and March of 44 BC, falls into the third issue of portrait coinage from Caesar’s lifetime, naming him as Dictator Perpetuo – “Dictator in Perpetuity,” another unprecedented honor bestowed by the Senate, probably on February 15. Caesar would bear the title only a month before his assassination on the Ides of March (March 15) 44 BC.
