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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
