The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. Early 46 BC. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.94 g, 12h). Rome mint; A. Hirtius, praetor. VF.

CNG Feature Auction 127
Lot: 450.
Closing Date: Sep 18 2024 11:00 ET

The Robert W. Hubel Collection, Assembled 1929-1939, Gold

Estimate: $ 4 000

BID NOW

The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. Early 46 BC. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.94 g, 12h). Rome mint; A. Hirtius, praetor. Veiled head of female (Vesta or Pietas?) right; C • CAESAR COS TER around / Emblems of the augurate and pontificate: lituus, capis, and securis; A • HIRTIVS • PR around from lower left. Crawford 466/1; Molinari 135-9 (D10/R215); CRI 56; Sydenham 1018; Calicó 37; Biaggi –; RBW 1634. Multiple marks and scratches, obverse die flaw, irregular edge. VF. Well centered.

From the 1930’s Collection of Robert W. Hubel of Michigan. Ex Cahn 66 (6 May 1930), lot 547.

Aulus Hirtius, friend and confidant of Julius Caesar, was praetor in 46 BC, and thus charged with the distribution of the first truly large issue of Roman gold coins to date. The aurei were for distribution to the general's successful troops after their final victory over the Pompeians in Africa at Thapsus. Each legionary received 5000 denarii (200 aurei), centurions twice that. Since Caesar had at least 40,000 legionnaires at Thapsus, the amount of coin needed was immense. But the amount of booty collected from Caesar's many campaigns was also colossal, and Hirtius seems to have been able to supply the need. Hirtius later finished the dictator's memoirs after his assassination and was himself killed at the Battle of Mutina in 43 BC.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 127 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 17-18 September 2024. This lot is in Session Two, which will begin 17 September at 2 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.