Description:
This rare coin was struck at a military mint traveling with Julius Caesar in North Africa (48-47 BC) during the Great Roman Civil War. The Trojan hero Aeneas is shown holding the palladium in his right hand and carrying his father Anchises on his shoulder. The palladium was a statue of great antiquity on which the safety of Rome was said to depend. In Roman religion, Aeneas was the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. Aeneas fled after the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the legendary forefather of the Roman people. Julius Caesar traced his divine ancestry to Aeneas and Venus.
Julius Caesar was a Roman military and political leader and probably the most famous Roman Emperor. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Caesar formed an unofficial triumvirate, which dominated Roman politics for several years, but was opposed in the Roman Senate. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman World all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The collapse of the triumvirate, however, led to a stand-off with Pompey and the Senate.
Leading his legions across the Rubicon, Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he became the undisputed master of the Roman World. After assuming control of the government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. Caesar was proclaimed “Dictator for Life” and heavily centralized the bureaucracy of the Republic. However, a group of senators, led by Caesar's former friend Marcus Junius Brutus, assassinated the Dictator on the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 BC.
