298/1. Caesia (112–111 BC)

AR Denarius (Rome, 112–111 BC)

O/ Bust of Apollo seen from behind, with head turned to left and thunderbolt in right hand; APO on right.

R/ Lares Praestites seated facing, with dog between, each holding staff in left hand; bust of Vulcan with tongs over shoulder above; LA on left; PRE on right; L CAESI in exergue.

3.79 g; 20mm

Crawford 298/1 (50 obverse dies/62 reverse dies)

- Collection of Walter Mirko Stoecklin, Winterthur, Switzerland, acquired prior to 1981.  W. M. Stoecklin was the third member of a dynasty of coin collectors based in Switzerland (read their story here).

- Obolos 9, lot 34.

Lucius Caesius:

Our moneyer is the first known member of the minor gens Caesia, but the rest of his life is completely unknown.  Mommsen (Monnaie Romaine, II, p.370) thought that he could have been the father of Lucius Caesius, praetor in 75 BC (Cicero, In Verrem, II, 1, 130), but there were other Caesii around this time, so they were not necessarily related. 

The deity represented on the reverse could be Apollo, as shown by the monogram behind his head, or Vejovis, an obscure god with the attributes of both Apollo and Jupiter (especially the thunderbolt).  The heroic bust design comes from the tetradrachms of the Baktrian king Eukratides I (171–145 BC), which shows the contacts that existed between this remote state in central Asia and Rome. This design was reused in Roman coinage well into the Roman Empire, as Commodus, Septimius, or Crispus were depicted as such.

The reverse depicts the Lares Praestites, the guardians of the city of Rome, whom Ovid described their statues with a dog between them (Ovid, Fasti, V, 129-145).  The bust of Vulcan and the tongs were possibly the emblems of the moneyers.

Referenz : 298/1

Sammlung : Roman Republic