obv. Laureate head of Augustus right, surrounded by the legend CAESAR AVGVSTVS DIVI F PATER PATRIAE rev. Caius and Lucius Caesars standing facing, each togate and resting hand on shield behind each shield a spear, above simpulum (on left, turded inwards) and lituus (on right, tuned inwards), surrounded by the legend C L CAESARES AVGVSTI F COS DESIG PRINC IVVENT
This coin type is not, as stated in RIC², date as 2 BC - 4 AD, but these coins were struck in 2 - 1 BC , which stems from the fact that Gaius Caesar in 1 AD. acquired the consulship and thus no longer bore the title of Princepes Iuventutis.
Caius Julius Caesar (20 BC – 21 February AD 4) was consul in AD 1 and the grandson of Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Although he was born to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, Augustus′ only daughter, Caius and his younger brother, Lucius Caesar were raised by their grandfather as his adopted sons and joint-heirs to the empire. He would experience an accelerated political career befitting a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, with the Roman Senate allowing him to advance his career without first holding a questorship or praetorship, offices that ordinary senators were required to hold as part of the cursus honorum. In 1 BC Caius was given command of the eastern provinces, after which he concluded a peace treaty with King Phraates V of Parthia on an island in the Euphrates. Shortly afterward, he was appointed to the office of consul the following year in AD 1. The year after Caius′ consulship, Lucius died at Massilia in the month of August. Approximately eighteen months later, Caius died of an illness in Lycia. Although he married his second cousin Livilla prior to his death, they did not have children. Following the deaths of Caius and Lucius, Augustus adopted his stepson as well as his sole-surviving grandson – Tiberius and Agrippa Postumus, respectively – in AD 4.
Modern studies have made it plausible that Jesus was probably born in the summer or fall of 2 BC. This makes that the Biblical Jesus is 2 years younger than the historical Jesus. So this aureus was struck more or less in the year of Jesus′ birth.
Cohen 42 | RIC 206 (R2) | BMC 513 | Sear 1578 Bahrfelt 235 | Calicó 176 R Very attractive piece with some lustre, struck on a broad flan. Unusual nice for the type. Rare. xf-
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