The first fruits of my sabbatical from doing art for a living have been plucked. I turned in my first writing assignment yesterday, and $150 was placed in my account with the coin dealer I named. The coin had in fact already been mailed, so by wonderful coincidence it arrived the day the first payment was made on it! I'll take this as a good omen.

The coin, as you see is a silver item about the size of a dime and called a denarius. This one was struck by the authority of Julius Caeser in 49 BC, just before he crossed the Rubicon and became not just conqueror of Gaul, but master of Rome. It shows on the face an elephant apparently crushing a snake. That's the orthodox interpretation, though more contemporary one describes it as a "carnyx".

A carnyx was a Celtic war trumpet, similar to horns used by a number of tribal peoples in Europe. It was held upright like a flag and blown through a mouthpiece at the bottom. The bell at the top was often shaped like a wolf, hound, or boar, but sometimes like a serpent. The animal head type would rather resemble the segmented, mop-topped whatchamacallit shown on this coin a lot more than it looks like any snake. The area below the elphant (called the exegue) bears the inscription CAESAR. ...for it it he, who's that this is, unto whom one renders it.

(Biblicalese is tough to parse, whew!)

The explanation for the older interpretation was that the "snake" represented the security of the Republic, being trampled by an elephant. a symbol of the Metellus clan, who were enemies of Caeser. Representing the safety of the Republic as a snake scarcely seems to make sense, though. On the other hand the Celtic trumpet was often depicted on Roman coins as part of the spoils of war.

The reverse side presents much more of a challenge. You could be forgiven for looking at these strange objects and deciding they were an assortment of party favours. Don't you blow the one of the left to straighten the paper snake out and make a whiz? No.

It wasn't hard to figure them out, actually. I knew what a couple were already. From left to right there's a simpulum first. It's not struck very well, so you can't really see it. It's roughly comma shaped and is in fact a sort of dipper, for pouring oil over sacrifices or some similar gesture. The wheezer above it is the aspergillum. This is a sort of brush dipped in holy water and used to sprinkle around to sanctify things or people. If you're a Roman Catholic you should recongize this implement. It's still used in Mass, and for all I know its still called the same thing. The upright gizmo in the center is a fasces. It has an odd shaped ax blade showing at the top, to the left. Around the axe handle a number of rods were tied, creating a strong bundle. The symbolism of the fasces is that in unity there is strength... especially when there's a sharp blade in the bunch representing power of the state. Such fasces were struck not just on Italian Fascist coins in 40's, but on the reverses of the famous Mercury Head American dimes of that perioo as well. The next oddity is the a real hoot!

It looks lie a balloon with a dildo on top, doesn't it? The balloon part is the albogalerus, a round cap with ear flaps that tie under the chin. It was made from white hide. On top of it is the apex, which is a twig of olive wood, with a scrap of wool wound around the base. It was attached to the cap with twine of some sort whose substance I forget. The apex was to be worn by one of the chief priests of Republican Rome whenever he left the house. He must have felt like a real chump. The Flamen Dialis had to wear a number of odd things as well as avoid wearing others. He could not be in the presence of a corpse, knots or iron of any sort -- a chained man had to be freed in his presence. It must have been one heck of a status symbol to be this particular kind of Roman priest -- there was only one at a time -- if it meant putting up with a bunch of loony-tune nonsense like that. Caeser was in fact nominated for the office as a young man. It would have ruled out a political or military career, but fortunately for Caeser he was never confirmed in office, and managed to weasel out of the "honour".

The 3/4 circle between the fasces and the aspergillum is a banker's proof. It would be struck into a coin with a hammer like instrument to prove there was silver all the way through. They're not uncommon on ancient coins, and as long as they're not too unstrategically placed -- like on the emperors forehead or nose -- don't materially affect the value of the coin.

This is the most common denarius struck under Julius Caesar's authority. There are other types, but none of those that were struck by Caeser himself bear his likeness. However, while he was dictator in Rome, two bankers (or money-lenders) were evidently given authority to strike denarii with the bust of the perpetual dictator, so that the only coins with his portrait were never actually struck by him. After his assassination, the dies were hastily modified to show his likeness with a funeral veil over his head. He definitely didn't strike those!