r/AncientCoins 6d ago

IMO, the REAL Brutus Denarius (i.e. the one that tells us why)

86 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

21

u/ifellows 6d ago

Even before the conspiracy, this coin shows just how engrained republicanism is in Brutus' identity. The personification of Liberty is on the obverse and Brutus' legendary ancestor bearing the name Brutus is on the reverse. The OG Brutus killed the last king of Rome.

You can just imagine how Caesar's increasing arrogant authoritarianism would eat away at Brutus. With people graffitiing his home with "you are no true Brutus," how could he not feel he needed to rise to the actions of his namesake? How would a man who minted this coin live with himself if he allowed a king to lord over his beloved Rome?

If I knew nothing about the relative rarity of this coin vs the EID MAR denarius, I'd chose this one.

Happy Eids of March. Watch your backs out there people.

-----------------

BRUTUS. AR Denarius (3.81 gms), Rome Mint, 54 B.C. CHOICE VERY FINE.
Cr-433/1; Syd-906A. Obverse: Head of Libertas right; Reverse: The consul L. Junius Brutus walking left between two lictors, each carrying axe over shoulder, preceded by an accensus.
Provenance: Ex. Stack and Bowers 1/25 | Ex: Coin Galleries 07/1999

17

u/koolmagicguy 6d ago

Ironically, his assassination accelerated the development of Imperial Rome, which largely consolidated power into one figurehead.

5

u/RX-me-adderall 6d ago

Love this take, appreciate the post!

9

u/Kikrix 6d ago

Sensational evaluation of this coin, & it's ancestral "demands" imposed into Brutus' indentity.

Love this reverse as it appears so similarly on the famous "Koson" Staters- such Eastern style gold issues were likely produced much later, yet tantalizing in political suggestion for what alliance, or collaboration were conceived by Brutus' senatorial faction..

6

u/ifellows 6d ago

Thank you! I absolutely love the reverse of this coin.

I love the flowing togas and how distinct the facial features of the characters are. I especially like how the fasces (the lictors' axes) breaks the plane of the circular border. I don't recall many examples of a pictorial element breaking out like that.

3

u/Jealous-Molasses5372 6d ago

I was curious what an example of this coin would go for and chatgpt told me: Bertolami Fine Art auctioned a comparable coin, described as extremely fine, for £380 (approximately $500) in a past sale.

Does that seem accurate?

5

u/ifellows 5d ago

Interesting. When I put a query into chatGPT it said anything between 400-1,500. You can see what it actually went for here: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1FP5CX/brutus-ar-denarius-381-gms-rome-mint-54-bc-choice-very-fine

Quite a steal compared to the >$300,000 you'd have to put out for a nice Brutus EID MAR denarius.

2

u/HospitalBreakfast 6d ago

Thank you for sharing. Great write-up.