210/1. Junia (149 BC)

AR Denarius (Rome, 149 BC)

O/ Helmeted head of Roma right; X behind.

R/ The Dioscuri right; C IVNI C F below; ROMA in exergue.

3.80g; 19mm

Crawford 210/1 (56 obverse dies/70 reverse dies)

- Naville Numismatics Live Auction 39, lot 402.

Gaius Junius C.f.:

Gaius Junius belonged to the very famous gens Junia, which was originally patrician, but turned plebeian in the first century of the Republic.  He and his homonymous father are not known, partly due to the lack of a cognomen.  They certainly did not belong to the two main stirpes of the Junii -- the Brutii and the Silanii -- as none of them used the praenomen Gaius before the end of the 1st century BC.  Other minor families of the gens however counted some members named Gaius, such as the Bubulci, or the Pulli.