Julius Caesar. 42 BC. AR Denarius (16mm, 4.01 g, 2h). Posthumous issue. Rome mint; L. Mussidius Longus, moneyer. Laureate head right / Rudder, cornucopia on globe, winged caduceus, and flamen’s cap. Crawford 494/39b; CRI 116; Sydenham 1096c; RSC 29. Good VF, lightly toned.
Lucius Mussidius Longus, a moneyer with an otherwise unknown cursus honorum. His nomen Mussidius indicates that he was a novus homo, or up-and-coming man with no long family pedigree. As such, he would have allied himself to any potential long-term power base. In 42 BC, as the Second Triumvirate was defeating Caesar’s assassins, Mussidius oversaw the striking of this denarius of the now-deceased and soon to be deified dictator, a clear nod to the Caesarian cause. Apparently, such a move benefitted the gens Mussidia. A distant relation, T. Mussidius Pollianus, was a senator under the new regime in the first century AD.
