Crawford 461/1

Moneyer:  Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, 47-46 BC  with M. Eppius, legatus.

Denomination: Denarius

Obverse: Q•METELL - SCIPIO•IMP Head of Africa to right, wearing elephant skin headdress; to right, stalk of grain; below, plow. 

Reverse:  LEG•F•C - EPPIVS Hercules standing facing, right hand set on his hip and leaning left on club draped with lion's skin and set on rock.

Reference: Crawford 461/1

Mint: Military mint moving with Scipio in Africa.

Weight: 

Note: Scipio disclosed to Cicero the Catiline conspiracy, was consul with Pompey in 52 BC and governor of Syria in 49 BC. He commanded the centre line of Pompey's army at Pharsalus, after which he fled to Africa and formed an alliance with Juba, king of Numidia. This coin was struck during his African campaigns and the type refers to Africa and the fertility of that province. He was defeated by Caesar at Thapsus, and when cornered in flight by the fleet of Publius Sittius he committed suicide, famously departing from his soldiers with a nonchalant Imperator se bene habet – 'Your general is just fine.' Scipio, from a long and illustrious line of generals and statesmen, was the last man of any consequence to bear that famous name.

The obverse type depicting Africa wearing an elephant headdress is remarkable in that it ultimately derives from Ptolemaic Egyptian representations of Alexander the Great as conqueror of Asia used on coins struck at Alexandria. Under the Roman Empire it was transmitted back to Alexandria where a female figure wearing the elephant headdress became the standard personification of the city.

Collection : 16 Roman Republic