(72) Gaius ("Caligula") - AV aureus, A.D. 40, 7.73 g.
(inv. 91.124).
Obverse: Laureate head of Gaius r.; C(AIVS) CAESAR AVG(VSTVS) PON(TIFEX)
M(AXIMVS) TR(IBVNICIA) POT(ESTATE) III CO(N)S(VL) III: Gaius Caesar Augustus,
pontifex maximus, with tribunician power for the third time, consul
for the third time.
Reverse: Radiate head of Augustus r.; DIVVS AVG(VSTVS) PATER PATRIAE: Divine
Augustus, father of the country.
Provenance: Abner Kreisberg, 1970.
Bibliography: C.H.V. Sutherland, The Roman Imperial Coinage I: from 31
BC to AD 69, rev. ed. (London 1984) 23.
Much of Caligula's coinage honored his family members and emphasized dynastic
continuity. The great-grandson of Augustus, he dedicated the Temple of Divine
Augustus begun by Tiberius (see no. 71), and he both honored Augustus and
drew attention to his relationship to him by placing his portrait on the
reverse of these coins. Augustus is depicted as a divinity wearing a crown
with rays of the sun god, Sol.
Caligula's portrait on the obverse conforms to the general type of the Julio-Claudian
successors of Augustus, inspired by the hairstyle and idealized features
of portraits of Augustus. In the case of Caligula, however, the idealization
may have been more extreme, since the biographer Suetonius describes him
as unattractive and balding (Caligula, 50).
C.L.L.
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