The Ides of March Eid Mar Brutus Assassin of Julius Caesar Rare AR Roman Imperatorial Denarius 43 BC Museum Reproduction CSRD0016

Very interesting issue, this denarii is a reproduction after an old forgery struck after summer 42 B.C. (possibly AD 68/69, or later). Brutus facial features are of an older man and the left dagger on reverse has three dots instead of the regular cross on the handle. An iconic type from its very inception, the EID MAR type of Brutus was copied and counterfeited probably almost immediately. At least 16 plated contemporary counterfeits are known to have survived – a disproportionately high ratio of plated coins to official issues, surely making the EID MAR one of the most contemporaneously counterfeited coins in history. Struck from dies engraved in a variety of styles, some of which are very faithful to the solid silver counterparts, those plated denarii of Brutus’ EID MAR type have occasionally elicited speculation that they may have been produced thus on account of dwindling silver supplies in Brutus’ camp. However, none of the plated denarii can be die matched with official, solid silver denarii. Indeed, the wide range of styles on these plated issues is indicative of their true nature as contemporary counterfeits. Whether produced by disaffected, bored or greedy Republican soldiers, or idealistically inclined civilian fraudsters, we shall never know. Of unofficial but solid silver copies there are considerably fewer specimens; it has been suggested by Italo Vecchi that the present coin “is an ancient strike, crystalized and the product of a near contemporary unofficial mint, possibly during the Civil Wars of AD 68-69 in Gaul or Spain”, as its crude style bears some resemblance to the issues produced at that time which also feature the two daggers and pileus on the reverse, albeit with the legend P R RESTITVTA replacing EID MAR – however, the possibility of a later renaissance origin cannot be fully excluded.

Marcus Junius Brutus was the son of Marcus Junius Brutus and Julius Caesar’s former mistress, Servilia. By 59 BC he acquired the alternative name Quintus Caepio Brutus through adoption by his uncle, Quintus Servilius Caepio. Brought up by Porcius Cato, he was educated in philosophy and oratory and long retained a fierce hatred of his natural father’s murderer, Pompey. He began his political career in 58 BC by accompanying Cato to Cyprus. As triumvir monetalis in about 54 BC he issued coins illustrating his strong republican views with Libertas and portraits of his ancestors L. Junius Brutus – who overthrew Tarquinius Superbus (the last Etruscan king of Rome)– and Servilius Ahala, the later fifth century BC tyrannicide (Crawford 433/1 and 2). In 53 BC he served in Cilicia as quaestor to Appius Claudius Pulcher, whose successor, Cicero, found that ‘the honourable Brutus’ was extracting 48 per cent interest on a loan to the city of Salamis in Cyprus, contrary to the lex Gabinia.
Brutus, the principled student, stoic, and Platonist who wrote a number of philosophical treatises and poems, seems an unlikely tyrannicide, quite dissimilar to the vehement Cassius. Despite his hatred of Pompey, he followed him in the Civil War of 49 BC against Caesar, but after the former’s defeat at Pharsalus he sought and was granted Caesar’s pardon. He proceeded to enjoy Caesar’s favor and was appointed governor of Gaul in 46 BC, praetor in 44 BC and consul designate for 41 BC. Perhaps under the influence of his second wife Porcia, Cato’s daughter, Brutus joined the conspiracy against Caesar, becoming the leader alongside Cassius. The reaction of the populace in the aftermath of the Ides of March compelled Brutus to leave Rome in April 44 BC.
The Senate’s resolution to declare him a ‘public enemy’ on 28 November 44 BC was soon repealed and in February 43 BC he was appointed governor of Crete, the Balkan provinces and later Asia. Suspecting the intentions of Antony and Octavian, Brutus went to Macedonia and won the loyalty of its governor, Hortensius, and there levied an army and seized much of the funds prepared by Caesar for his Parthian expedition. Successful against the Bessi in Thrace, he was hailed imperator by his troops, but after the establishment of the triumvirate in November 43 BC he was outlawed again and joined forces with Cassius at Sardes. In the summer of 42 BC they marched through Macedonia and in October met Octavian on the Via Egnatia just outside Philippi and won the first battle. Cassius, as his conservative coins show, remained true to the old republican cause, while Brutus followed the self-advertising line of Antony in the new age of unashamed political propaganda and struck coins displaying his own portrait. Brutus’ estrangement from Cassius was effectively complete when this remarkably assertive coin was struck extolling the pileus or cap of liberty (symbol of the Dioscuri, saviors of Rome, and traditionally given to slaves who had received their freedom) between the daggers that executed Caesar. In the ironic twist of fate, Brutus committed suicide during the second battle at Philippi on 23 October 42 BC, using the dagger with which he assassinated Caesar.
This extraordinary type is one of the few specific coin issues mentioned by a classical author, Dio Cassius, Roman History 47. 25, 3: “Brutus stamped upon the coins which were being minted his own likeness and a cap and two daggers, indicating by this and by the inscription that he and Cassius had liberated the fatherland.” The only securely identified portraits of Brutus occur on coins inscribed with his name; all others, whether on coins or other artifacts, are identified based on the three issues inscribed BRVTVS IMP (on aurei) or BRVT IMP (on denarii). A careful study of Brutus’ portraits by S. Nodelman segregates these inscribed portraits into three main categories: a ‘baroque’ style portrait on the aurei of Casca, a ‘neoclassical’ style on the aurei of Costa, and a ‘realistic’ style on the ‘EID MAR’ denarii, which Nodelman describes as “the soberest and most precise” of all.
DESIGN:
Obverse side
Bare head of Brutus, right
Legend:
BRVT IMP L PLAET CEST

Reverse side
Liberty cap and two daggers pointing downward
Legend:
EID MAR

A perfect choice for Numismatists, Historians, Military Veterans, Collectors.