Gaius (Caligula), with Divus Augustus. AD 37-41. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.74 g, 12h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. 1st emission, after 18 March AD 37.

Triton XXV
Lot: 793. Estimated: $ 10 000

Roman Imperial, Coin-in-Hand Video, Silver

Sold For $ 12 000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

Gaius (Caligula), with Divus Augustus. AD 37-41. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.74 g, 12h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. 1st emission, after 18 March AD 37. C • CAESAR • AVG • GERM • P • M • TR • POT • COS, bare head of Gaius (Caligula) right / Radiate head of Divus Augustus right; two stars flanking. RIC I 2; Lyon 157 (unlisted dies); RSC 11 (Caligula and Augustus); BMCRE 4-5; BN 3-8; Mazzini 11 (Caligula and Augustus). Lightly toned. Choice EF. Struck in high relief from dies of exceptional style. Worthy of a top-tier Twelve Caesars set.

From the Thomas A. Palmer Collection. Ex CNG inventory 737486 (April 2004); Triton VII (13 January 2004), lot 849.

The accession of Gaius (Caligula) to the imperial throne on the death of his great-uncle Tiberius signalled a kind of "golden age" in that for the first time, not only did a direct biological descendant of Augustus become emperor, but one who could also claim a direct link with several important Republican figures. Through his mother, Agrippina Sr., Gaius was descended from Augustus, and also Agrippa, the victor of Actium. Gaius' father Germanicus was the son of Nero Claudius Drusus and nephew of Tiberius, sons of Augustus' widow, Livia. Through his mother Antonia, Germanicus was the grandson of Mark Antony and Octavia, the sister of Augustus. Accordingly, many of his coins recall his dynastic connections to both the Julians and the Claudians as well as his own family.

Like his great-grandfather Augustus did with Divus Julius Caesar, Gaius had coins struck which included Divus Augustus. While later emissions of this type leave no doubt, since the legend DIVVS AVG PATER PATRIAE is included, this earlier denarius, struck in the opening months of the new reign, is more ambiguous: it is anepigraphic; the inclusion of stars argue for recent divinity (Augustus had been deified 23 years earlier), and the features on some of these coins appear like portraits of Tiberius. Combined with the historical evidence that Gaius had personally given Tiberius' funeral oration and had asked the Senate to approach the idea of deification for Tiberius, this argues that this coin was struck during the initial days when Gaius was testing the idea. The Senate, however, refused to pursue the matter further, and the portrait was altered to more closely resemble Augustus.

The final winners of all Triton XXV lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 11-12 January 2022. Triton XXV – Session Three – Roman Republican & Imperatorial Coinage through Byzantine Coinage will be held Wednesday morning, 12 January 2022 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 22.50% 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 the stable previous version of Mozilla Firefox and Chrome.