«EID MAR»

by H. Mattin GLY

Of all Roman coins that bear reference to history the most famous, beyond a doubt, is the denarius of M. Brutus, which celebrates the bloody, but memorable deed of the 15th of March, 44 B.C. It is also one of the few that are specifically mentioned by an ancient authority (Dio Cassius). Yet, no special study, so far as I know, has ever been devoted to it, and that is why I am choosing it as the subject of this paper. A closer study of the coin and its place in the coinage of the « Liberators » in the East should bring out some new points of interest about its significance and purpose. It will be necessary, first, to summarize the general history of the years 44-42 B.C. so far as it is relevant to our subject, and then to review the coin material as collected and annotated by Grueber in his « Catalogue of the Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum ». My debt to him will be particularly great. Most of what I have to say will be found at one place or another, in his work. What I have to add are some new suggestions about mints and some new considerations about political propaganda in the coinage.

When the conspirators murdered Julius Caesar, they had not worked out their next move. Apparently, they expected the situation to clear up of itself. When it did not clear, they stood on the defensive expecting trouble from the Caesarian leaders, Antony and Lepidus. A compromise, however, was reached in the senate on the motion of Cicero. No public inquiry should be held into the murder of Caesar, but he should receive a public funeral and his acts should be valid. On these terms the rival parties fraternized. But the reconciliation was hollow. Antony used the occasion of the funeral speech to inflame the Roman mob against the assassins of Caesar Brutus and Cassius, though both praetors, found it safer to leave