Cassius Aureus

Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 1029. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $15500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

C. Cassius Longinus. Summer 42 BC. AV Aureus (8.09 g, 6h). Military mint, probably at Sardis. M. Servilius, legate. Laureate head of Libertas right / Aplustre, the branches terminating in flowers. Crawford 505/1; CRI 224; Sydenham 1311. Near EF, light scrapes and scuffs. Very rare.

The final issue of Cassius. This reverse type commemorates the capture of Rhodes by Cassius, who seized booty amounting to eight thousand talents from the public treasury after he had contemptuously spurned the title of king which the terror-stricken Rhodians had offered him. The aplustre was a common symbol of naval superiority, while the floreate endings of its branches allude to the rose, the civic emblem of Rhodes.