Q. Servilius Caepio (M. Junius) Brutus, as Moneyer (54 BC). AR denarius (18mm, 4.25 gm, 7h). NGC XF 5/5 - 3/5, scratches. Rome. BRVTVS, bare head of L. Junius Brutus right / AHALA, bare head of C. Servilius Ahala right. Crawford 433/2. Sydenham 907. Junia 30. Attractive example with two handsome portraits struck on a bright satiny flan and toning around the peripheries. During his term as moneyer in 54 BC, Marcus Junius Brutus issued two denarius types that would prove to be remarkably prophetic in a decade's time. This type celebrates his illustrious ancestors, including Lucius Junius Brutus, the first Consul of Rome, who in 509 BC initiated the conspiracy that overthrew the city's last king, Tarquin the Proud. The reverse honors Gaius Servilius Ahala, who in 439 BC used a dagger concealed in the folds of his toga under his arm to slay Spurius Maelius, a wealthy patrician who had plotted to make himself king. In 44 BC, Brutus himself would undertake a conspiracy to slay another tyrant, Julius Caesar, in which the conspiring senators concealed daggers within their togas.

HID09801242017

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