262/1. Caecilia (128 BC)

AR Denarius (Rome, 128 BC)

O/ Helmeted head of Roma right, XVI behind.

R/ Goddess in biga right, holding sceptre and reins in left hand and branch in right hand; elephant's head with bell attached below, RO-MA below.

3.88g; 19mm

Crawford 262/1 (31 obverse dies/39 reverse dies)

- Bertolami Fine Arts Prague, Auction 295 (04/05/2024), lot 480.

Lucius Caecilius Q.f. Q.n. Metellus "Diadematus":

Diadematus belonged to the plebeian gens Caecilia.  The Metelii one of the most prominent families of the Republic during the second half of the second century, as most of them reached the highest ranks of the cursus honorum. 

His father, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus became very influential after having won the Fourth Macedonian War in 148 BC, and could secure the political future of his four sons.  The eldest son, Quintus Balearicus indeed became Consul in 123 and Censor in 120; the third son, Marcus received the Consulship in 115; and the last one, Gaius Capriarius was Consul in 113 and Censor in 102.

Diadematus was thus the second son.  His strange agnomen possibly came from the bandage he had worn on his head because of a wound.  He reached the praetorship by 120 and the consulship in 117, during which he built the Via Caecilia, connecting Umbria with the Adriatic Sea.  Broughton (vol. I, p.530) mentions an inscription bearing his name near Patavium, therefore deducing that he was Proconsul in Cisalpine Gaul.

Like two of his brothers, Diadematus received the censorship (in 115) -- alongside Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, with whom he expelled 32 members of the Senate (Livy, Periochae 62).  T. P. Wiseman says that these senators were "new men" that the censors considered dangerous for the social order.

A leader of the Optimates, like the other Metelli, Diadematus strongly opposed the Populares: he is therefore mentioned by Cicero as one of the "virtuous men" who marched against the Tribune Saturninus in 100 (pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo, 21).

The reverse of the denarius recalls the victory of Lucius Caecilius Metellus, who as Consul in 251 won the decisive victory of Panormus against the Carthaginian elephants of Hasdrubal.  The Metelli then often used elephants on their coins.  The identity of the moneyer is found by elimination, since all of Diadematus' brothers were also moneyers (cf. RRC 256, 263, 269).

Reference : RRC 262/1

Collection : Roman Republic