72, Lot: 84. Estimate $1500. Sold for $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GAIUS (CALIGULA), with DIVUS AUGUSTUS. 37-41 AD. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.30 gm). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck 37 AD. Bare head of Gaius (Caligula) right / Radiate head of Divus Augustus right. RIC I 0; RSC 3. Toned VF, minor porosity. Very rare. Strong portraits.

Gaius, the youngest, and only surviving son of Germanicus and Agrippina Sr., became emperor at only 25 years of age. Although he had long been admired by his father's legions (they had given him the nickname Caligula), since, as a small child, he had accompanied his father and mother to the front, he lacked the first-hand military experience of his father, great-uncle, and great-grandfather. Gaius, therefore, relied on dynastic association to win the support of the military and people of Rome. Accordingly, many of his coins recall his dynastic connections to both the Julians and the Claudians, and this type emphasizes his relationship to the founder of the empire, his great-grandfather Augustus.