Julius Caesar, as Dictator (49-44 BC). AR denarius (19mm, 5h). NGC VF,

Description

Julius Caesar, as Dictator (49-44 BC). AR denarius (19mm, 5h). NGC VF, flan flaw, graffiti. Military mint traveling with Caesar in North Africa, ca. 48-46 BC. Head of Venus right, wearing beaded necklace, stephane with bangs rolled and tucked into stephane and pulled back into chignon, some loose curls behind / CAESAR, Aeneas advancing left, head facing, palladium left in outstretched right hand, carrying Anchises on his left shoulder. Crawford 458/1. Sydenham 1013. Julia 10. In the myth of the founding of Rome, Aeneas was the child of Venus and Anchises. With the fall of Troy, Aeneas, a Trojan warrior, was ordered by the gods to flee with a group of people including his father and son, Iulus. After Aeneas’ own “Odyssey” through the Mediterranean, he landed in Italia, and his legacy would become the founding of Rome and his descendants would be Romulus and Remus. With this coins imagery, Julius Caesar refers to the mythical founding of Rome and was used to link Julius Caesar’s lineage to Iulus, then Aeneas, and finally to Venus. Caesar also used the obverse of this coin to lay claim to the goddess Venus over his opponent of the time, Pompey the Great. The reverse refers to the moment Aeneas fled Troy, carrying his father to safety with him. This story was later immortalized in Virgil’s Aenead, under the auspices of Augustus, who used this story to link himself by extension of his adoption by Julius Caesar to the founding of Rome.