Just two years after the assassination of Julius Caesar in ancient Rome, one of his assassins issued a coin commemorating the death of a would-be dictator, featuring daggers on the reverse.
A coin known as the "EID MAR" denarius commemorating the Idols of Marta* was minted in 42 BC. e. Marcus Junius Brutus, the man who famously killed Julius Caesar.
Ides (lat. Idus, from Etr. iduare - “to divide”) - in the Roman calendar, this was the name of the day in the middle of the month. On the 15th, the Ides fall in March, May, July, and October; on the 13th - in the remaining eight months.
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By 50 B.C. e. Caesar became an extremely powerful politician in the Roman Republic, leading Rome's military operations in the Gallic Wars and expanding Rome's territory into France.
After his victories, Caesar was called by the Roman Senate to step down from his military post. But Caesar refused and crossed the Rubicon River with his army, starting a civil war, which he eventually won in an unprecedented position of power in 44 BC. when he called himself "dictator of eternity".
Carl Theodor von Piloty. "The Assassination of Caesar"; 1865.
State Museum of Lower Saxony
This year, many politicians feared that Caesar, dissatisfied with the role of dictator, aspired to become king. A group of Roman senators conceived a plot to assassinate Caesar, which was carried out by them on March 15, the day of Ides March.
Coin
Image: Stack's Bowers Galleries
"Until Julius Caesar in 44 BC, no living Roman had his portrait placed on a Roman coin,"said Liv Yarrow, professor of history at Brooklyn College in New York, an expert on the coins of the Roman Republic.
On the obverse we see the profile of Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. On the edges of the coin is written BRUT IMP, which means Commander Brutus, and PLAET CEST, the name of the coiner, Lucius Pletorius Kestian.
Image: Stack's Bowers Galleries
The reverse of the coin bears the abbreviation "EID MAR", meaning the Ides of Marta, as well as two daggers of a free man, symbolizing how Brutus liberated Rome from Caesar.
"Traditionally, heads on coins were reserved for gods and kings," Liv added. This, combined with Caesar's declaration of himself as dictator of eternity, led directly to his downfall.
Source:
www.livescience.com
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