DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51762#0134
HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
was probably he who, after the encl of the Social
War, carried the law embodying two new tribes, and
who was praetor with Verres in 74 b.c. The Apollo
and the horse on his coins refer to the races celebrated
at the Ludi Apollinares. These were inaugurated in
212 b.c., and the annual celebration was established
next year by Piso’s ancestor, C. Calpurnius Piso,
praetor urbanus.
SULLA IN GREECE.
87'—84 b.c.
55. Obv. Head of Venus r. ; before it, Cupid standing,
holding palm branch; below, LSVLLA-
Rev. Sacrificial ewer and lituus between two
trophies; above and below, IMPER
ITERVM
Aureus. 10'72 grammes (165'4 grains). British Museum.
This aureus is one of the earliest specimens of that
gold coinage, issued by generals in virtue of their
imperium, which eventually developed into the gold
coinage of the Empire. Gold issues of this kind were
at the time quite outside the province of the ordinary
Roman civil moneyer. Apart from that fact, the
fabric of the coin proves that it was not produced by
the mint at Rome. There is general agreement
among numismatists that it should be assigned to the
period of Sulla’s campaign against Mithradates.
During this campaign his quaestor Lucullus issued
92
was probably he who, after the encl of the Social
War, carried the law embodying two new tribes, and
who was praetor with Verres in 74 b.c. The Apollo
and the horse on his coins refer to the races celebrated
at the Ludi Apollinares. These were inaugurated in
212 b.c., and the annual celebration was established
next year by Piso’s ancestor, C. Calpurnius Piso,
praetor urbanus.
SULLA IN GREECE.
87'—84 b.c.
55. Obv. Head of Venus r. ; before it, Cupid standing,
holding palm branch; below, LSVLLA-
Rev. Sacrificial ewer and lituus between two
trophies; above and below, IMPER
ITERVM
Aureus. 10'72 grammes (165'4 grains). British Museum.
This aureus is one of the earliest specimens of that
gold coinage, issued by generals in virtue of their
imperium, which eventually developed into the gold
coinage of the Empire. Gold issues of this kind were
at the time quite outside the province of the ordinary
Roman civil moneyer. Apart from that fact, the
fabric of the coin proves that it was not produced by
the mint at Rome. There is general agreement
among numismatists that it should be assigned to the
period of Sulla’s campaign against Mithradates.
During this campaign his quaestor Lucullus issued
92