DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51762#0217
HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
Caesares honoris mei canssa senatus populusque
Romanns annum quintum et decimum agentis consules
designavit, ut [e]um magistratum inirent post quin-
quennium. et ex eo die, quo deducti [s]unt in forum,
ut interessent consiliis publicis decrevit sena[t]us.”
The deduct™ in forum took place early in 749 -
5 b.c. 1—perhaps, as Mommsen says, on 1st January.
L. Caesar did not receive the toga virilis until three
years later. But the designation of Gaius as consul
did not necessarily take place at the same time as the
deduct™ in forum.2 Some decent interval probably
elapsed. It is to this interval that we may, perhaps,
without rashness, assign the coin before us. Now Pio
tells us,3 in connexion with the admission of Gaius to
public affairs, that he received tep&crvvriv nva. In
this statement we may find an explanation of our
reverse type. The thymiaterium or incense altar and
the wreath—the constituents of which are the ordinary
decorations of Roman altars4 — both indicate some
priestly office, as surely as do the sacrificial imple-
ments which are so common as reverse types on
Roman coins.
So far as our information goes, there is no objection
to the date here suggested for this aureus. Placed
OO
1 Sueton. Aug. 26; Zonar. 10. 35 : 12th consulship of Augustus.
2 Mommsen, Res gest. pp. 52 f. disposes of the current belief that
Gaius was designated consul while still praetextatus.
8 LV. 9.
4 See Beisch in Pauly-Wissowa, i. 1679.
167
Caesares honoris mei canssa senatus populusque
Romanns annum quintum et decimum agentis consules
designavit, ut [e]um magistratum inirent post quin-
quennium. et ex eo die, quo deducti [s]unt in forum,
ut interessent consiliis publicis decrevit sena[t]us.”
The deduct™ in forum took place early in 749 -
5 b.c. 1—perhaps, as Mommsen says, on 1st January.
L. Caesar did not receive the toga virilis until three
years later. But the designation of Gaius as consul
did not necessarily take place at the same time as the
deduct™ in forum.2 Some decent interval probably
elapsed. It is to this interval that we may, perhaps,
without rashness, assign the coin before us. Now Pio
tells us,3 in connexion with the admission of Gaius to
public affairs, that he received tep&crvvriv nva. In
this statement we may find an explanation of our
reverse type. The thymiaterium or incense altar and
the wreath—the constituents of which are the ordinary
decorations of Roman altars4 — both indicate some
priestly office, as surely as do the sacrificial imple-
ments which are so common as reverse types on
Roman coins.
So far as our information goes, there is no objection
to the date here suggested for this aureus. Placed
OO
1 Sueton. Aug. 26; Zonar. 10. 35 : 12th consulship of Augustus.
2 Mommsen, Res gest. pp. 52 f. disposes of the current belief that
Gaius was designated consul while still praetextatus.
8 LV. 9.
4 See Beisch in Pauly-Wissowa, i. 1679.
167