Sulla’s dream – a denarius of the Roman republic

The year 44 B.C. and the denarius of L. Aemilius Buca

44 BC was no ordinary year in the history of the Roman republic. Since his triumph in the civil war against Pompey, Julius Caesar exercised undisputed control over the Roman republic. In 46 BC, he had been appointed dictator, but at the beginning of 44 BC he received the even more elevated title of “dictator for life” (dictator perpetuo rei publicae constituendae). Shortly thereafter, on the Ides of March, he was murdered by a conspiracy of young aristocrats who saw him as a tyrant intent on destroying the freedom of the Roman people.

44 BC was also a decisive year in the history of Roman coinage. One of the officials in charge of the mint of Rome, Lucius Aemilius Buca, had an extensive series of denarii minted.The coins had varied motifs including obverses representing the bust of Caesar accompanied by a legend referring to his status as perpetual dictator.  It was the first time that a living citizen was portrayed on a Roman coin, an exceptional honour whose only precedent was that of the Hellenistic kings, Alexander the Great and his successors. Undoubtedly, Ceasar was depicted in a kingly manner that conflicted with the Roman republican tradition.

Reverse with the scene traditionally interpreted as " Sulla' s dream "

In addition to the denarius depicting Caesar’s head, Buca had another coin minted that has attracted the attention of numismatic scholars since the Renaissance.

The obverse shows Venus' head, while the reverse depicts a man lying down, his head leaning back. The trunk of his body is naked, while a mantle is wrapped around his legs. From the right, Selene, identified by a crescent on her head, descends towards him. In her right hand she holds a torch, while her left hand and right foot rest on a rock. Between the man and the goddess, at the back of the scene, is a winged female figure, carrying an object that looks like a palm branch or a stick.

The traditional interpretation

The French numismatist Andreas Morell (1646-1703) was the first to propose an interpretation of this reverse scene that would make the coin famous. It was based on a passage from the life of Lucius Cornelius Sulla written by Plutarch. According to the latter, 

"It is said, also, that to Sulla himself there appeared in his dreams a goddess whom the Romans learned to worship from the Cappadocians, whether she is Luna, or Minerva, or Bellona. This goddess, as Sulla fancied, stood by his side and put into his hand a thunder-bolt, and naming his enemies one by one, bade him smite them with it; and they were all smitten, and fell, and vanished away. Encouraged by the vision, he told it to his colleague, and at break of day led on towards Rome.

Morell identified the reverse of Buca’s denarius as a representation of Sulla's dream, who would be the reclining human figure visited by the goddess. His interpretation would be adopted by the great Austrian numismatist Joseph Eckhel and the latter’s authority would grant it the general acceptance that this interpretations enjoys to this day.

An Alternative Interpretation - The Myth of Endymion

The great French numismatist Ernest Babelon rejected Morell's interpretation, seeing in the scene a representation of the Greek myth of the shepherd Endymion. According to legend, the goddess Selene fell in love with this beautiful young shepherd and obtained from Zeus the concession that he would always stay young sleeping so as to be able to visit him every night.

The Myth of Endymion

I find this interpretation more convincing than the traditional one, since it seems difficult to believe that one of the mint officials appointed by Caesar would have coined a type paying homage to Sulla, who adhered to a diametrically opposed political position.

Moreover, it seems difficult to think that contemporaries would have been so familiar with a personal anecdote of Sulla's life that we know only from scarce and later sources. On the contrary, the myth of Endymion, like most Greek legends, was well known to the Romans, who saw it frequently represented in theatre and art. 

Endymion is often represented in funerary contexts as an allusion to the eternal life granted by the gods. So I think it is most likely that the reverse type was chosen by Aemilius Buca as a tribute to the assassinated Caesar.

The coins of Venice

Ducat of Andrea Dandolo c. 1354 - obverse

The history of Venice

During the fifth century AD, the north of Italy was in chaos as a result of the barbarian invasions that devastated much of the west of the Roman Empire. In this difficult times, the inhabitants of some of the towns of the region sought refuge in the scattered islets of the marshy lagoons north of the Adriatic Sea. There they found the security they longed for and also a basis for subsistence in fishing and in the salt trade. These were the modest origins of Venice, which with the passage of time grew to become a very prosperous city centered on trade, commerce, and international business. By the late Middle Ages it was one of the great economic and military powers of the Mediterranean.

Its unique nature as a city built on water provided Venice with protection and guaranteed its independence from the great powers of the Byzantine and Carolingian empires. The Venetians organized themselves in a republic controlled by the main merchant families, a form of government highly unusual during the middle Ages. The republic was led by the Doge, a ruler elected by an aristocratic assembly and whose power was controlled by a complex system of checks and balances.

 

Ducat of Andrea Dandolo c. 1354 - reverse

During its long history, the Venetian republic was remarkably stable and lacked the political turmoil that regularly affected the rest of the European states of the time. It was thus rightly called “the most serene”, la serenissima.

Because of its eminently commercial activity, Venice always had an intense monetary circulation. During the High Middle Ages, its merchants relied above all on Byzantine coins that were those of the highest quality available and were accepted throughout the Mediterranean world.

Grosso of Francesco Dandolo - c. 1328

The coins of Venice

The situation changed at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Byzantine coinage had been gradually debased and had consequently lost its reputation. A new international currency was urgently needed and the Venetians were ready to take the opportunity. Under the great Doge Enrico Dandolo (ruled 1192-1205), they introduced a new coin of high quality silver, the grosso or matapan. We do not know the exact date of its first minting but it was close to the beginning of the century.

With a theoretical weight of c. 2.2 g., the coin reached a purity of 98.5%, the maximum achievable with the technology of the time. This purity guaranteed a wide acceptance as a means of international payment. The design of the coin was strongly influenced by the Byzantine iconography, with a Christ enthroned on the obverse and Saint Mark and the Doge holding a banner, on the reverse.

Around 1250, as trade in the Mediterranean world flourished and expanded, Genoa and Florence - Venice's commercial rivals - minted new high-value pure gold coins, the Genovino and the Florin, with a standard of approximately 3.5 grams. The florin quickly established itself as the new standard currency for international trade. The success of this rival coinage would finally lead the Venetians in 1284 to introduce their own gold coin, the ducat. It had a theoretical weight of 3.53 grams and a purity of 99.5%, which would allow it to conquer a place as a widely accepted international currency and to compete successfully with the florin.

Ducat of Fra Giovanni Dandolo -1284

The obverse shows an upright figure of Jesus surrounded by stars, with the legend T[ibi] XPE (Christe) DAT[us] Q[uem] T[u] REGIS ISTE DVCAT[us]. On the reverse we see St. Mark handing over a banner to the Doge.

Venice would continue to mint ducats of the same quality until the end of the Republic in 1797.

How to clean ancient coins

How to clean ancient coins?

Should I clean my coins?

One of the questions I get asked most often is "How should I clean my coin collection?" Actually, the answer I give is very simple and always the same: you should not clean your coins. That is a rule that applies in the vast majority of cases. Why? Because the most likely result of cleaning will be that you will damage your collection.

Believe it or not, one of the most common mistakes made by beginners is the improper cleaning of their coins. Many times they irreparably damage them and cause them to lose their value, especially if they use abrasive commercial products, which, due to their acid composition, remove part of the metal from the surface. The result will be a coin with an artificial brightness that will alert any potential buyer.

The same can happen if you try to clean a coin using a brush. No matter how soft the bristles of the brush, it is very likely that they will end up scratching the surface of the coin and causing it to lose value.

Collectors strive to acquire coins that are as natural and damage free as possible and they will have no interest whatsoever in a coin that has been improperly cleaned

The formation of a patina depends on the metallic composition of the coin and is the result of a natural chemical process that takes a long time. The patina is a thin film that forms on the surface coins made of copper or other alloys due to oxidation. In the case of silver coins a similar process is usually called “toning”. Patina and intonation reflect the age of a coin and add aesthetic and economic value to it. If we clean a coin, it is most likely that we will eliminate or damage its patina or intonation, erasing in this way a good part of its history and beauty.

The only exception to the rule

One of the rare cases in which a coin should be cleaned is if it has become dirty with dust, grease left by fingers, or some other type of dirt due to improper handling or storage. In that case, it is always best to use distilled water (because running water contains chlorine that can damage the coin) and, if necessary, a bit of a mild neutral soap. The operation must be done with extreme care to avoid scratching the surface of the coin. For drying, it is best to let it dry alone or use a hot air to speed up the process.

The decussis, the largest Roman coin ever issued

Decussis - AE 1075 gr. c. 215 b.C. obv: Head of Rome to the right with helmet. Value mark X. rev: Roman galley to the left. Mark of value X.

The Second Punic War and the crisis of the archaic Roman monetary system

The Second Punic War (218-201 BC) was a crucial event in Roman history. An all-or-nothing struggle for hegemony in the western Mediterranean between the two powers of the region, Carthage and the Roman Republic.

At the beginning of the war, Hannibal's bold crossing of the Alps and the brilliant victories in the battles of Ticino, Trebia and Lake Trasimeno gave the Carthaginians an important advantage and left the Romans in a critical situation. Hannibal always seemed one step ahead of the Roman generals. For the campaigning season of 216 BC, the senate decided to gather a much larger army than the ones Hannibal had defeated, trusting that the numerical superiority would allow the Roman commanders to neutralize his tactical talent. They sent 80.000 men to face the Carthaginians in a decisive Battle.

Despite these enormous efforts, the 216 B.C. campaign ended in complete disaster. The Battle of Cannae was the greatest defeat of the Romans in all their history. In spite of his numerical inferiority, Hannibal made with his troops a brilliant pincer movement. The Roman soldiers, attacked from all sides, were annihilated in an unprecedented massacre.

The defeat left the Republic in a desperate situation. The losses could not be replenished in the short term and there was no longer enough metal to continue minting Roman coins to the standards in force before the start of the war. The quadrigatii were devalued by reducing their silver content and the bronze coins by reducing their weight.

The decussis

The years following the defeat of Cannae were critical for Rome. Devaluations seem to have led to a gradual loss of confidence in Roman currency. The Roman authorities reacted minting new types of coins. A particularly interesting issue is that of a complete set of bronze denominations that the English numismatist Michael Crawford dates to the years 215-212 BC. and includes large-sized cast coins.

The decussis is particularly striking because it is, in fact, the largest coin ever issued by the Roman state in all its long history, with 1075 grams of weight. Dea Roma is depicted on the obverse, wearing a Phrygian helmet and with the mark of value X behind. On the revers, we see the typical galley of the Roman bronze coins. These large cast coins were only a short lived experiment and are extremely rare. Only four decussis are known today, three of which are in museums and only one in the hands of a private collector, having been auctioned in 2010 for 240,000 Swiss francs.

The Brescello Hoard – the largest and most valuable hoard of Roman coins ever found

Brescello, the ancient municipium of Brixellum, is a small town in northern Italy near Modena. Originally, it was a Gallic settlement on banks of the Po River that was romanized after the area was annexed by the Roman republic. The city was transformed into a Roman colony in the period following the assassination of César and it quickly became an important transport and communication hub.

It was in this city that in the year 1714 one of the most remarkable numismatic discoveries ever recorded took place. A peasant, while ploughing a field, accidentally found a vessel containing about 80,000 republican aurei, that is, approximately 650kg of pure gold!

The treasure was composed entirely of only 32 varieties of types coined between the years 46 and 38 BC, so it is quite safe to assume that it was buried in 38 or 37 BC. The latest coin identified was an aureus minted by Octavian that mentions Agrippa as consul designate for the year 37 (Crawford 534/1).

The hoard was most likely the treasure chest of a warlord of the period of civil wars. Its nominal value was 2,000,000 denarii. To put that figure on an understandable scale, it must be considered that the annual pay of a legionary in that period amounted to 250 denarii. Of course, the current value of the treasure would be much higher. A fairly conservative estimate of about $ 1000 on average for each coin gives a total value of $ 80,000,000. Undoubtedly, it is the most valuable hoard of Roman coins ever recorded, and by a wide margin.

The sheer size of the hoard is a good indicator of the enormous quantities of gold that were coined after Caesar’s victory in the civil war against Pompey. The new Caesarian aurei were minted by the millions and an important portion of this output was accumulated by a small elite, mainly in the entourage of the great political leaders of the period.

Unfortunately, very few of the coins discovered at Brescello survived. At the beginning of the 18th century there was not a sufficiently developed numismatic market as to absorb such a number of ancient coins. Therefore, after dispersing a relatively small part, the rest was melted to mint ducats!