Lot 3641

Description

Q. Caepio Brutus better known as M. Junius Brutus, silver denarius, issued 54 B.C., Rome Mint, 3.77 grams, C.433/1, S.906, BMC 3861, Sear Junia 31 (p.56), Obv. Head of Liberty to r., behind LIBERTAS border of dots, Rev. The Consul L.Junius Brutus walking l. between two lictors preceeded by an accensus BRVTVS in exergue, border of dots. Nearly very fine and scarce, (66).

The piece was struck by Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, when as a young man he was a moneyer. The issue refers to his ancestry and recalls the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome in 509 B.C. by L. Junius Brutus who was consul in that year. By a process of adoption he is known as Q. Servilius Caepio Brutus, a consul designate in 41 B.C.