updated: 15 March 2023
Large photo located in CONSERVATORI Cabinet Gallery
Julius Caesar (Dictator, 49 – 44 BCE) AR Denarius (3.49g, 17mm, 1h).
Mobile military mint traveling with Caesar in Northern Italy, 49 BCE.
Obv: Elephant advancing right, trampling on horned serpent or carnyx (Gallic war trumpet). CAESAR in exergue.
Rev: Pontifical emblems – ladle (simpulum), sprinkler (aspergillum), axe (securis) surmounted by a wolf head, and priest’s hat (apex).
Ref: RSC 49; Crawford 443/1; Sydenham 1006; Sear CRI 9 (ref. in error in K. Davis 74); Babelon 1885, p10, Julia 9.
Pedigree: Ex-Kirk Davis Catalog #74, Lot 65 (12 Nov 2019); VAuctions Triskeles Sale 28, Lot 260 (21 Jun 2019).
Historic & Numismatic Notes: A historically significant, iconic classic. The coins of Julius Caesar are of special interest to numismatists because they not only reflected important historical moments, but actually played a role in shaping them.
Below: Sold examples from archive of Jackson & Jacobs Family Numis. (c. 2001-15)
Coins must also have been a central concern for Caesar himself since, after crossing the Rubicon,
…one of Caesar’s first acts upon arriving in Rome was to issue coins in his own name without the approval of the Roman senate.
Nousek, Debra L. 2008. “Turning Points in Roman History: The Case of Caesar’s Elephant Denarius.” Phoenix 62 (3/4): 290-307. Available online: JSTOR or academia.edu
Issuing them without Senate approval – traditionally indicated by prominently displaying the letters S-C (Senatus Consulto) – was a consequential signal. Caesar had no intentions of sharing power with the Senate, as Republican law and custom strictly dictated.
Fourrées (or Subaeratus) are silver plated denarii with base cores. As NGC indicates, these were “ancient forgeries,” also known as contemporary counterfeits. (As Mattingly (1928/1960: 24) noted, though, there were times when the State officially struck plated denarii.) Archive of sold coins.
Over the next 5 years, the designs and imagery on Caesar’s coinage were viewed as increasingly hostile to the Roman Senate – and even to the Republic itself. The final issue not only offended the Roman Senate and elites by displaying his portrait prominently on the obverse – the coin of a Greek Kingdom, not the Roman Republic – but proclaimed his new title, taken at the point of a spear: “DICT PERPETVO,” for Dictator in Perpetuity. (In fact, he only held it for a few weeks before the Senate killed him.)
Below: “The Coin that Killed Caesar.” Moneyer L. Aemelius Buca, Feb-Mar, 44 BCE. Craw 480/8.
Those final denarii, struck in the weeks leading up to his assassination, are frequently labeled “The Coins that Killed Caesar.” Caesar’s elephant denarius is usually not included among them. Nonetheless, the circumstances of its issue were already heading in that direction. Caesar had not yet placed his portrait on the coin, but had usurped the Senate and used Treasury silver to strike an issue naming himself as Imperator. My view is that the elephants series were, in fact, the “first of the coins that killed Caesar.”
The Elephant & the Snake/Carnyx – a Visual Pun? The meaning of the coin’s iconic imagery is a matter of some debate. The most popular interpretation may be that the elephant represents Caesar trampling Pompey Magnus, the snake.
However, the “snake” may actually be a “carnyx” – the Gallic war trumpet often shaped in the form of a mythical serpent with large ears and forked tongue, as depicted. See, for instance, its remarkable resemblance to the most famous example in the archaeological record, the Carnyx of Tartignac. Carnyxes are also found on Julius Caesar’s other military mint denarii struck between 49 and 46 (most prominently on the “Gallic trophy” series [e.g., RSC 18; to a lesser extent, RSC 15], including the “Gallic captives” issues [e.g., RSC 13-14]).
The latter interpretation would also neatly explain why Caesar’s elephant is depicted trunk-upward, as if trumpeting over the sound of the defeated Gauls, while most Greek-world, Carthaginian, and Roman coinage depicted the trunk lowered or curved inward.
A final intriguing possibility is that both views are correct. Given the well known popularity of visual puns on Roman Republican coinage, it is plausible that the designer of the coin intended both meanings.
Dating & Mint Location. The exact dating and location of this issue are matters of long-standing disagreement among numismatic scholars (see Nousek 2008: 290; the crossing of the Rubicon was 10 or 11 January, 49). Some (e.g. Sydenham 1952) have dated it as early as 54 BCE, others occasionally as late as Caesar’s campaign in N. Africa in 47/6 (e.g., CNG Sale 84, Lots 933-4 [5 May, 2010]; incidentally, the approx. date and location of his enemy Metellus Pius Scipio’s elephant denarius, likely based partly on Caesar’s design). The most widely adopted is Crawford’s (1974 [RRC]: p89) date of 49-48.
Among auctioneers: Heritage, Spink, Stack’s favor “(Northern) Italy, c. 49-48”; Freeman & Sear, 49, “Northern Italy and Spain”; CNG & Roma generally opt for the more conservative, “Military mint traveling with Caesar,” though CNG has indicated dates as precise as “April-August 49” (i.e., after crossing the Rubicon). NAC & a few smaller houses date the coin to Caesar’s known movements through specific Provinces, viz. Gallia Narbonensis and Hispania Citerior, 49.