GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR (49-44 BC)

"All of Gaul has been conquered" The obverse of this denarius features the bust of Venus Genetrix, to whom Caesar dedicated a temple in 46 BCE on the Forum of Caesar (the Julian clan traced their divine lineage to Venus). The reverse, commemorating Julius Caesar's spectacular victory over the Gauls, depicts captured prisoners. One of them may represent Vercingetorix, the leader of the Gallic uprising ultimately defeated by the Romans in one of antiquity's most famous battles, the Battle of Alesia in 52 BCE.

In this engagement, Caesar's force of nearly 60,000 Romans triumphed over a Gallic army exceeding 200,000. Following his victory, Caesar celebrated a grand triumph in Rome in 46 BCE, parading the naked Vercingetorix confined in a cage.