The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. 42 BC. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.76 g, 12h). Rome mint; L. Mussidius Longus, moneyer. Near EF.

Triton XXVI
Lot: 627. Estimated: $ 5 000

Roman Republican, Silver

Sold For $ 9 750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. 42 BC. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.76 g, 12h). Rome mint; L. Mussidius Longus, moneyer. Laureate head right / Rudder, cornucopia on globe, winged caduceus, and apex; L • MVSSIDIVS • LONGVS in semicircle above. Crawford 494/39a; CRI 116; Sydenham 1096a; RSC 29; BMCRR Rome 4238-9; Kestner 3750; RBW 1742. Lightly toned, light scratch in field on reverse. Near EF. Beautifully centered and well struck for issue. Rare as such.

Ex Dr. John Whitehead Collection; CNG inventory 804308 (December 2007); Hess-Divo 308 (24 October 2007), lot 128.

Lucius Mussidius Longus, a moneyer with an otherwise unknown cursus honorum. His nomen Mussidius indicates that he was a novus homo, or up-and-coming man with no long family pedigree. As such, he would have allied himself to any potential long-term power base. In 42 BC, as the Second Triumvirate was defeating Caesar’s assassins, Mussidius oversaw the striking of this denarius of the now-deceased and soon to be deified dictator, a clear nod to the Caesarian cause. Apparently, such a move benefitted the gens Mussidia. A distant relation, T. Mussidius Pollianus, was a senator under the new regime in the first century AD.

The final winners of all Triton XXVI lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 10-11 January 2023.

Triton XXVI – Session Two – Lot 335-673 will be held Tuesday afternoon, 10 January 2023 beginning at 2:00 PM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.