Lot 2153

Description

C.Cassius Longinus (died 42 B.C.), denarius, issued 43-2 B.C., mint travelling with Cassius and Brutus in the East, obv. diademed head of Libertas to right, around, C CASSI IMP behind, LEIBERTAS, dotted border, rev. jug and lituus, around LENTVLVS SPINT, dotted border, (Cr.500/3, Syd.1307, S.386). Plated, with some loss on the reverse of the silver, otherwise good fine and rare.

Ex Duke of Northumberland Collection. This coin also published in Rear Admiral William Henry Smyth book `Descriptive Catalogue of a Cabinet of Family Coins belonging to His Grace the Duke of Northumberland K.G.', 1856 as Tablet V, No.44. The obverse type of Libertas is an obvious advertisement of the political aims of Brutus and Cassius, the restoration of the Republic. The reverse type, suprisingly, alludes to the personal background of Cassius himself in his appointment to the College of Augurs in 57 B.C., the same year he assumed the toga virilis. He committed suicide in the battle of Philippi in 42 B.C.