323/1. Julia (101 BC)

AR Denarius (Rome, 101 BC)

O/ Helmeted head of Roma right; corn-ear behind.

R/ Victory in biga right, holding reins in both hands; L IVLI below.

3.84g; 19mm

Crawford 323/1 (47 obverse dies/59 reverse dies)

Lucius Julius:

Although our moneyer belonged to the very famous gens Julia, his life is completely unknown. The Julii had been among the important patrician gentes of the early Republic, but fell in obscurity in the fourth century. In the second century, a new branch emerged, the Julii Caesares, but Crawford notes that our moneyer cannot be a Caesar because he did not use this cognomen and his coins lack a reference to Venus (cf. RRC 258 and 320).

The corn ear on the obverse refers to grain distributions, which often featured on Republican coins (RRC 242, 243, 245, 260, 261, 306, 330).

Collection : Roman Republic