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Roman Empire Emperors

Category:  Ancients
Owner:  Von Werner
Last Modified:  2/25/2024
  
Set Description
Although this set was first created in the NGC Registry in July, 2018, it had been in its construction phase long before that. I pulled inspiration from a few sources and have tweaked the goals a bit, but overall, my basic goals for this set have remained consistent. As hoaky and not historically accurate as my first inspiration was, the HBO show "Rome" revolved around Julius Ceasar and what is known as the Imperatorial Period. The characters in the show were actual characters in real life and became the basis for the starting period of my collection. Important figures that shaped Rome into the Empire it was to become are the first coins featured in my set; figures such as Brutus, Scipio, Marc Antony, Pompey Magnus, Lepidus, and Julius Caesar, among others, begin my collection into my main focus of Emperors of the Roman Empire. My collection does not contain Roman Republic coins, nor have I concentrated on adding females, although a few have been recently added with a significant number yet to be sent off for grading.

My original focus has always been obtaining at least one certified coin from each of the Roman Emperors. Originally, I was not going to include Usurpers or those only obtaining the rank of Caesar and not Augustus, however this focus has changed as my knowledge and history of the Roman Empire has evolved. I have obtained many Usurpers and Caesar's, as well as other key players or rare leaders. My primary focus has not changed, as it is my ultimate goal to obtain a coin from every Emperor.

My original focus was on the Western Roman Empire, but as I built the collection, I found Eastern Emperors were of great importance and played pivotal and key roles in shaping the Empire. This logically led into collecting Byzantine Emperors and now my ultimate goal is to have a coin that represents every Emperor from Octavian Augustus to Constantine XI, with the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.

I am not under any illusions about this set ever being completed. Some Usurpers are so rare that only 1 coin are even known of them. Others are obtainable with unlimited funds, which I do not have. I watched a Jotapian Usurper coin sell for $7,800. I bid up to $6,000 twice for a Julius Nepos coin and lost both times. And I watched a Constantine XI sell at auction for $28,000. I also can't count the number of times that NGC has saved me from being burned by a decent forgery. I have been burned on Caesar, Cato, Cassius, Tiberius, Gordian II, Florian, Balbinus, Pupienus, Pertinax, and Lealianus. Some ancient collectors swear by raw coins only but I honestly wonder how many fakes are unknowingly in their collection. Many of these forgeries were of exceptional quality that only an expert could spot, and thanks to NGC, besides grading fees, I have recovered all costs.

I hope to bring this collection to as close as complete as I can, while also working on upgrading many of my lower grade examples. It is my goal to upgrade coins as well as add coins. My Western Empire is much more complete than my Byzantine, though that collection is making progress.

An important side note, I'd like to stress that, although NGC begins labeling coins as Byzantine after Zeno in 491, it should be noted that the population of Constantinople and the East considered themselves Roman right up until 1453, when the Empire finally fell. The term Byzantine was not used by scholars until the 18th century. I would like to give credit to Wikipedia and Eric Volume II for much of the information provided under each individual in this set.

To speak directly about the set itself, if you follow the rules laid out after 395 that the Senior Emperor was always the Eastern Emperor and any Western Emperor after 395 had to be accepted by the East, then the only legitimate Western Emperor this set is missing is Julius Nepos. Every other emperor would be considered a usurper.

I am proud of what I have accomplished so far. The set includes the rare issues of Alexander of Carthage, Jotapian, Martinian, Jovinus, Domitius Domitianus, Constantine III, Leo II, Majorian, Anthemius, Johannes, Eugenius, Basciliscus, Hanniballianus, and John VIII, just to name a few (so far). There are also 37 Gold coins to date in the collection!
Note: Any coin listed as "Want" that HAS A PHOTO is owned and awaiting encapsulation by NGC.

Set Goals
To obtain a certified example of each Emperor, Caesar, Usurper, and key figure of the Roman Empire, beginning with the Imperatorial period, through the Roman Empire, Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, and Byzantine Empire, teaching history to those that explore this collection.

Slot Name
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View Coin Sulla-Imperatorial 82BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Sulla, d.79 BC AR Denarius 82 BC. L.Man. Torquatus. NGC VF Although dictator 30 years prior to Caesar crossing the Rubicon, it was Sulla who set in motion the downfall of the Rupublic. To understand him is to understand what occurred later:

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix[4] (138–78 BC), commonly known simply as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman who won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. He had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. Sulla was a gifted and innovative general, achieving numerous successes in wars against different opponents, both foreign and domestic. Sulla rose to prominence during the war against the Numidian king Jugurtha, whom he captured through betrayal, although his superior Gaius Marius took credit for ending the war. He then fought successfully against Germanic tribes during the Cimbrian War, and Italic tribes during the Social War. He was even awarded the Grass Crown for his command in the latter war.

Sulla played an important role in the long political struggle between the Optimates and Populares factions at Rome. He was a leader of the former, which sought to maintain the Senatorial supremacy against the social reforms advocated by the latter, headed by Marius. In a dispute over the command of the war against Mithridates, initially awarded to Sulla by the Senate but withdrawn as a result of Marius's intrigues, Sulla marched on Rome in an unprecedented act and defeated Marius in battle. The Populares nonetheless seized power once he left with his army to Asia. He returned victorious from the East in 82 BC, marched a second time on Rome, and crushed the Populares and their Italian allies at the Battle of the Colline Gate. He then revived the office of dictator, which had been inactive since the Second Punic War over a century before. He used his powers to purge his opponents, and reform Roman constitutional laws, in order to restore the primacy of the Senate and limit the power of the tribunes of the plebs. Resigning his dictatorship in 79 BC, Sulla retired to private life and died the following year.
Sulla's military coup—ironically enabled by Marius' military reforms that bound the army's loyalty with the general rather than to the Republic—permanently destabilized the Roman power structure. Later political leaders like Julius Caesar would follow his precedent in attaining political power through force.

At the end of 82 BC or the beginning of 81 BC, the Senate appointed Sulla dictator legibus faciendis et reipublicae constituendae causa ("dictator for the making of laws and for the settling of the constitution"). The "Assembly of the People" subsequently ratified the decision, with no limit set on his time in office. Sulla had total control of the city and republic of Rome, except for Hispania (which Marius's general Quintus Sertorius had established as an independent state). This unusual appointment (used hitherto only in times of extreme danger to the city, such as during the Second Punic War, and then only for 6-month periods) represented an exception to Rome's policy of not giving total power to a single individual. Sulla can be seen as setting the precedent for Julius Caesar's dictatorship, and for the eventual end of the Republic under Augustus.
In total control of the city and its affairs, Sulla instituted a series of proscriptions (a program of executing those whom he perceived as enemies of the state and confiscating their property). Plutarch states in his "Life" of Sulla (XXXI): "Sulla now began to make blood flow, and he filled the city with deaths without number or limit", further alleging that many of the murdered victims had nothing to do with Sulla, though Sulla killed them to "please his adherents".

The proscriptions are widely perceived as a response to similar killings which Marius and Cinna had implemented while they controlled the Republic during Sulla's absence. Proscribing or outlawing every one of those whom he perceived to have acted against the best interests of the Republic while he was in the East, Sulla ordered some 1,500 nobles (i.e., senators and equites) executed, although it is estimated that as many as 9,000 people were killed. The purge went on for several months. Helping or sheltering a proscribed person was punishable by death, while killing a proscribed person was rewarded with two talents. Family members of the proscribed were not excluded from punishment, and slaves were not excluded from rewards. As a result, "husbands were butchered in the arms of their wives, sons in the arms of their mothers". The majority of the proscribed had not been enemies of Sulla, but instead were killed for their property, which was confiscated and auctioned off. The proceeds from auctioned property more than made up for the cost of rewarding those who killed the proscribed, filling the treasury. Possibly to protect himself from future political retribution, Sulla had the sons and grandsons of the proscribed banned from running for political office, a restriction not removed for over 30 years.
The young Gaius Julius Caesar, as Cinna's son-in-law, became one of Sulla's targets and fled the city. He was saved through the efforts of his relatives, many of whom were Sulla's supporters, but Sulla noted in his memoirs that he regretted sparing Caesar's life, because of the young man's notorious ambition. The historian Suetonius records that when agreeing to spare Caesar, Sulla warned those who were pleading his case that he would become a danger to them in the future, saying: "In this Caesar there are many Mariuses."
View Coin M. Aem. Lepidus Paullus-Republic c. 62BC ANCIENT - ROMAN REPUBLIC (4th CENT BC - 1st CENT BC) ROMAN REPUBLIC L.Aem.Lep.Paullus c.62 BC AR Denarius Brother of Triumvir Allly of Caesar Consul in 50BC NGC Ch VF Lucius Aemilius Paullus was a Roman politician. He was the brother of triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.

Paullus supported Cicero during the Catiline Conspiracy. He never supported Pompey, probably because he held a grudge against him for betraying his father in 77. Paullus was quaestor in 59 BC, aedile in 55, praetor in 53 and consul in 50.
During Paullus' consulship, Julius Caesar bribed him for his support. He reconstructed the Basilica Aemilia in Rome, with part of his bribery money.

Paullus opposed the second triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Paullus' own brother, Marcus Lepidus. He supported Cicero in condemning its members. The triumvirs included him in their proscriptions. However, according to Cassius Dio, his brother allowed him to escape. Lepidus' soldiers left him unhindered. Paullus joined the political rebel Marcus Junius Brutus. When Brutus died in 42, Paullus was pardoned and lived his remaining years at Miletus.
View Coin Lepidus-Republic 61-58BC ANCIENT - ROMAN REPUBLIC (4th CENT BC - 1st CENT BC) ROMAN REPUBLIC M.Aem. Lepidus, 61/58 BC AR Denarius AR Denarius Member of Third Triumvirate NGC VG Lepidus joined the College of Pontiffs as a child. He started his cursus honorum as triumvir monetalis, overseeing the minting of coins, from c. 62–58 BC. Lepidus soon became one of Julius Caesar's greatest supporters. He was appointed as a praetor in 49 BC, being placed in charge of Rome while Caesar defeated Pompey in Greece. He secured Caesar's appointment as dictator, a position Caesar used to get himself elected as consul, resigning the dictatorship after eleven days. Lepidus was rewarded with the position of proconsul in the Spanish province of Hispania Citerior.
While in Spain Lepidus was called upon to act to quell a rebellion against Quintus Cassius Longinus, governor of neighbouring Hispania Ulterior. Lepidus refused to support Cassius, who had created opposition to Caesar's regime by his corruption and avarice. He negotiated a deal with the rebel leader, the quaestor Marcellus, and helped defeat an attack by the Mauretanian king Bogud. Cassius and his supporters were allowed to leave and order was restored. Caesar and the Senate were sufficiently impressed by Lepdius's judicial mixture of negotiation and surgical military action that they granted him a triumph.
Lepidus was rewarded with the consulship in 46 after the defeat of the Pompeians in the East. Caesar also made Lepidus magister equitum ("Master of the Horse"), effectively his deputy. Caesar appears to have had greater confidence in Lepidus than in Mark Antony to keep order in Rome, after Antony's inflammatory actions led to disturbances in 47. Lepidus appears to have been genuinely shocked when Antony provocatively offered Caesar a crown at the Lupercalia festival, an act that helped to precipitate the conspiracy to kill Caesar.
When in February 44 Caesar was elected dictator for life by the Senate, he made Lepidus magister equitum for the second time. The brief alliance in power of Caesar and Lepidus came to a sudden end when Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 (the Ides of March). Caesar had dined at Lepidus' house the night before his murder. One of the ringleaders of the conspiracy, Gaius Cassius Longinus, had argued for the killing of Lepidus and Mark Antony as well, but Marcus Junius Brutus had overruled him, saying the action was an execution and not a political coup.

As soon as Lepidus learned of Caesar's murder, he acted decisively to maintain order by moving troops to the Campus Martius. He proposed using his army to punish Caesar's killers, but was dissuaded by Antony and Aulus Hirtius. Lepidus and Antony both spoke in the Senate the following day, accepting an amnesty for the assassins in return for preservation of their offices and Caesar's reforms. Lepidus also obtained the post of Pontifex Maximus.
At this point Pompey's surviving son Sextus Pompey tried to take advantage of the turmoil to threaten Spain. Lepidus was sent to negotiate with him. Lepidus successfully negotiated an agreement with Sextus that maintained the peace. The senate voted him a public thanksgiving festival. Lepidus thereafter administered both Hispania and Narbonese Gaul.
When Antony attempted to take control of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) by force and displace Decimus Brutus, the Senate, led by Cicero, called on Lepidus to support Brutus – one of Caesar's killers. Lepidus prevaricated, recommending negotiation with Antony. After Antony's defeat at the Battle of Mutina, the Senate sent word that Lepidus' troops were no longer needed. Antony, however, marched towards Lepidus's province with his remaining forces. Lepidus continued to assure the Senate of his loyalty, but engaged in negotiations with Antony. When the two armies met, large portions of Lepidus's forces joined up with Antony. Lepidus negotiated an agreement with him, while claiming to the Senate that he had no choice. It is unclear whether Lepidus' troops forced him to join with Antony, whether that was always Lepidus's plan, or whether he arranged matters to gauge the situation and make the best deal.

Antony and Lepidus now had to deal with Octavian Caesar, Caesar's great-nephew and who had been adopted by Caesar in Caesar's will. Octavian was the only surviving commander of the forces that had defeated Antony at Mutina (modern Modena). The Senate instructed Octavian to hand over control of the troops to Decimus Brutus, but he refused. Antony and Lepidus met with Octavian on an island in a river, possibly near Mutina but more likely near Bologna, their armies lined along opposite banks. They formed the Second Triumvirate, legalized with the name of Triumvirs for Confirming the Republic with Consular Power (Triumviri Rei Publicae Constituendae Consulari Potestate) by the Lex Titia of 43. With the triumvirs in possession of overwhelming numerical superiority, Decimus Brutus' remaining forces melted away, leaving the triumvirs in complete control of the western provinces.
Unlike the First Triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, this one was formally constituted. In effect, it sidelined the consuls and the Senate and signalled the death of the Republic. The triumvirate's legal lifespan was for five years. At the beginning Lepidus was confirmed in possession of both the provinces of Hispania, along with Narbonese Gaul, but also agreed to hand over seven of his legions to Octavian and Antony to continue the struggle against Brutus and Cassius, who controlled the eastern part of Roman territory. In the event of a defeat, Lepidus' territories would provide a fall-back position. Lepidus was to become consul and was confirmed as Pontifex Maximus. He would assume control of Rome while they were away.

After the pacification of the east and the defeat of the assassins' faction in the Battle of Philippi, during which he remained in Rome, Antony and Octavian took over most of Lepidus' territories, but granted him rights in the provinces of Numidia and Africa. For a while he managed to distance himself from the frequent quarrels between his colleagues Antony and Octavian. When the Perusine War broke out in 41, Octavian tasked Lepidus with the defence of Rome against Lucius Antonius, Mark Antony's brother. Lucius, with superior forces, easily took the city. Lepidus was forced to flee to Octavian's camp. Lucius soon withdrew from Rome and Octavian retook the city. After this Lepidus was given six of Antony's legions to govern Africa. In 37 BC the treaty of Tarentum formally renewed the Triumvirate for another five years.
During Lepidus' governorship of Africa he promoted the distribution of land to veterans, possibly in order to build up a network of clients. He appears to have encouraged the Romanisation of Thibilis in Numidia and to have demolished illicit extensions to Carthage so that the formally cursed area of the old city, destroyed after the Third Punic War, was not built upon.

Fall from power
In 36, during the Sicilian revolt, Lepidus raised a large army of 14 legions to help subdue Sextus Pompey. However, this was to lead to an ill-judged political move that gave Octavian the excuse he needed to remove Lepidus from power. After the defeat of Sextus Pompey, Lepidus had stationed his legions in Sicily and a dispute arose over whether he or Octavian had authority on the island. Lepidus had been the first to land troops in Sicily and had captured several of the main towns. However, he felt that Octavian was treating him as a subordinate rather than an equal. He asserted that Sicily should be absorbed into his sphere of influence. After negotiation, he suggested an alternative: Octavian could have Sicily and Africa, if he agreed to give Lepidus back his old territories in Spain and Gaul, which should legally have been his according to the Lex Titia. Octavian accused Lepidus of attempting to usurp power and fomenting rebellion. Humiliatingly, Lepidus' legions in Sicily defected to Octavian and Lepidus himself was forced to submit to him.
On 22 September 36, Lepidus was stripped of all his offices except that of Pontifex Maximus; Octavian then sent him into exile in Circeii. After the defeat of Antony in 30, Lepidus' son Lepidus the Younger became involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Octavian, but the plot was discovered by Gaius Maecenas. The younger Lepidus was executed, but the former triumvir himself was left unmolested. His wife Junia was, however, implicated. Lepidus had to plead with his former enemy Lucius Saenius Balbinus to grant her bail.
Spending the rest of his life in obscurity, Lepidus was apparently allowed to return to Rome periodically to participate in Senatorial business. Octavian, now known as "Augustus", is said to have belittled him by always asking for his vote last. Lepidus died peacefully in late 13 or early 12, upon which Augustus assumed the position of Pontifex Maximus for himself; afterwards, the chief priest’s office was moved from the Regia to Augustus' palace, located on the Palatine Hill in Rome.
View Coin Brutus-Imperatorial c. 54BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Brutus, d.42 BC AR Denarius AR Denarius c. 54 BC ancestors Brutus & Ahala issue as Moneyer, c.54 BC NGC Ch XF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 Brutus was close to General Julius Caesar, the leader of the Populis faction. However, Caesar's attempts to assume greater power for himself put him at greater odds with the Roman elite and members of the Senate. Brutus eventually came to oppose Caesar and fought on the side of the Optimate faction, led by Pompey the Great, against Caesar's forces in Caesar's Civil War. Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 B.C., after which Brutus surrendered to Caesar, who granted him amnesty.

However, the underlying political tensions that led to the war had not been resolved. Due to Caesar's increasingly monarchical behavior, several senators, calling themselves "Liberators", plotted to assassinate him. They recruited Brutus, who took a leading role in the assassination, which was carried out successfully on March 15, 44 B.C. The Senate, at the request of the Consul Mark Antony, granted amnesty to the assassins. However, a populist uprising forced Brutus and his brother-in-law, fellow assassin Gaius Cassius Longinus, to leave the City of Rome. In 43 B.C., Caesar's grandnephew, Consul Octavian, by then also formally known as Gaius Julius Caesar, immediately after taking office passed a resolution declaring the conspirators, including Brutus, murderers. This led to the Liberators' civil war, pitting the erstwhile supporters of Caesar, under the Second Triumvirate, wishing both to gain power for themselves and avenge his death, against those who opposed him. Octavian combined his troops with those of Antony, and together they decisively defeated the outnumbered armies of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi in October 42 B.C. After the battle, Brutus committed suicide.
View Coin Vercingetorix-Imperatorial 48BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL L.Hostil. Saserna, 48 BC AR Denarius The Werner Collection Vercingetorix(?)/biga NGC Ch XF Strike: 3/5 Surface: 3/5 This coin, although somewhat controversial, is believed to portray Vercingetorix. The image is consistent with a Gallic warrior and there is a precedent of Romans placing conquered leaders on coins, so it is very conceivable that this image is indeed Vercingetorix.

Vercingetorix (82 BC – 46 BC) was a king and chieftain of the Arverni tribe who united the Gauls in a failed revolt against Roman forces during the last phase of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Despite having willingly surrendered to Caesar, he was executed in Rome.

Vercingetorix was the son of Celtillus the Arvernian, leader of the Gallic tribes. Vercingetorix came to power after his formal designation as chieftain of the Arverni at the oppidum Gergovia in 52 BC. He immediately established an alliance with other Gallic tribes, took command, combined all forces and led them in the Celts' most significant revolt against Roman power. He won the Battle of Gergovia against Julius Caesar in which several thousand Romans and their allies were killed and the Roman legions withdrew. Caesar had been able to exploit Gaulish internal divisions, easily to subjugate the country and Vercingetorix's attempt to unite the Gauls against Roman invasion came too late. At the Battle of Alesia, also in 52 BC, the Romans besieged and defeated his forces; to save as many of his men as possible, he gave himself to the Romans. He was held prisoner for five years. In 46 BC, as part of Caesar's triumph, he was paraded through the streets of Rome and then executed by strangulation. Vercingetorix is primarily known through Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War). To this day, he is considered a folk hero in Auvergne, his native region.
View Coin Lentulus & Marcellus-Imperatorial 49BC IRAN TOMAN AH1224(1809) QAJAR - FATH 'ALI SHAH KASHAN The Werner Collection edge chips NGC Ch VF Strike: 5/5 Surface: 1/5 Lentulus and Marcellus were the Consuls when Caesar crosses the Rubicon and were staunch Pompien’s and enemies of Caesar. The biographies of each are listed below. This coin was minted by a military mint in Asia moving with Pompey.

Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus (before 97 BC – 48 BC) was Consul of the Roman Republic in 49 BC, an opponent of Caesar and supporter of Pompeius in the Civil War during 49 to 48 BC.
Family and political career

Born sometime before 97 BC, son of a Publius Lentulus, his origins are otherwise unknown, though he was most likely a member of the patrician Cornelii Lentuli branch of the gens Cornelia.
Details of Crus' younger years are not known. In 72 BC, Caesar's man Balbus acquired his Roman citizenship for service under Pompeius against Quintus Sertorius in Spain. On the basis of the Roman names he took – Lucius Cornelius Balbus – and on the basis of later letters to Cicero, it is possible[5] that both Balbus major and minor obtained citizenship with the sponsorship of L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus, who may then have been serving with Pompeius as a legate (Pompeius was there 76 BC to 71 BC; had Crus been born c. 98 BC, he would have been between the ages of 22 and 27 at the time).
In 61 BC he was the chief prosecutor of Publius Clodius Pulcher at a quaestio extraordinaria over the latter's violation of the mysteries of the Bona Dea, along with two other Cornelii Lentuli, in which he failed to secure a conviction due in large part to the bribes which Clodius spread amongst the jurors.
Lentulus' rise through the cursus honorum of political office is not now known prior to his election, during the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus, as Praetor for 58 BC.[10] During his term of office Clodius, now a tribune of the people, moved against his enemy Cicero on the basis that the latter, as consul of 63 BC, had put Roman citizens to death without trial. Cicero hoped for Lentulus' aid against Clodius; although the praetor did, with other senior figures, attempt to persuade Pompeius to act to protect Cicero, this failed, as Pompeius refused to act against an elected tribune on his own authority.
In 51 BC he stood for election to the prestigious priestly board of fifteen men in charge of the Sibylline Books (Quindecimviri sacris faciundis),[13] but was defeated by Publius Cornelius Dolabella (to the amusement of Cicero's correspondent, Marcus Caelius Rufus.
In 50 BC he was elected consul for the following year alongside G. Claudius Marcellus, as opponents to Caesar, and was an active and vocal participant in the increasingly hysterical scenes in the senate in late 50 and January 49 as Caesar sought to secure a safe consulship whilst a reactionary group of senators sought to have him stripped of command. Finally, on 7 January 49 BC, the senate under Lentulus and Marcellus passed the “final decree” (senatus consultum ultimum);[18] the tribunes Mark Antony and Cassius fled with Caesar's envoy, the younger Curio, from Rome to meet Caesar at Ravenna. On the 10th, Caesar famously crossed the Rubicon, starting the Civil War.
Civil War

Initially Lentulus remained in Rome but left, with many senators, ahead of Caesar's advancing forces. He recruited troops for Pompeius in Capua (even gladiators at one stage, before thinking better of this[20]). Caesar sent his agent, the younger Balbus, on a mission to win over Lentulus[21] – possibly Crus was patronus to the Cornelii Balbi, uncle and nephew, if he had been their sponsor when they were granted Roman citizenship under Pompeius in 72, and Caesar hoped that Balbus would have some influence with the consul. However, by 3 March Cicero reported[22] to Atticus that the Consuls had crossed over from Brundisium to the shore of Greece.
Lentulus recruited two legions in the province of Asia for Pompeius[23] - a decree of his in July 49 BC exempted the Jews of Asia Minor from military service.[24] He was with Pompeius, as Proconsul, in his defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus on 9 August 48 BC,[25] where he commanded the Pompeian left wing.[26] On his flight from the battlefield Lentulus was denied refuge in Antioch[27] and instead followed Pompeius to Egypt. He was taken prisoner on 4 September by the order of King Ptolemy XIII and executed whilst in prison.[28]
Caesar himself placed a great deal of blame on Lentulus for the events of late 50/early 49 which brought about the civil war, commenting on the magnitude of Lentulus' debts and his hopes for control of an army and rich provinces, and going so far as to claim that the Consul was aiming to make himself master of Rome, a second Sulla.[29] He was also seen as duplicitous, warning the senate in the debates of January 49 that if they did not declare against Caesar then he, Lentulus, had his own means of regaining Caesar's favour. Cicero, in a characteristically cutting remark, described Lentulus as being averse to the trouble of thinking.[30] Writing of the private interests and personal ambitions of Pompeius' followers, he seems to give support to Caesar's claims,[31] and his later acerbic comments that Lentulus promised himself Hortensius' town house, Caesar's suburban villa, and an estate at Baiae as spoils of the civil war do bear out Lentulus' reputation for avarice.


Gaius Claudius Marcellus (before 91 BC – c. 48 BC) was a Consul of the Roman Republic in 49 BC.[1]
This article is about the consul in 49 BC. For his cousin and consul of 50 BC, see Gaius Claudius Marcellus (consul 50 BC).
Family and political career

The Claudii Marcelli were a plebeian family, members of the nobiles with a long history of consulships throughout the history of the Republic. Following a century without the family reaching the consulship, three Claudii Marcelli were Consuls in succession: in 51 BC Marcus Claudius Marcellus (the brother of Gaius Marcellus); in 50 BC Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor (their cousin); and in 49 BC Gaius Marcellus himself.
Gaius Marcellus was born sometime before 91 BC.[2] His father was M. Claudius Marcellus, curule aedile of 91;[3] his great-grandfather was M. Claudius Marcellus who was three times consul, and whose own grandfather – also a M. Claudius Marcellus – was five times consul and fought against Hannibal in Italy.
Nothing is known of his earlier life, any military service, or his quaestorship and entry to the Senate, although he may have been the candidate in opposition to Clodius for the curule aedileship of 56 BC of whom, on 23 November, Cicero wrote "The candidate Marcellus is snoring so loud that I can hear him next door" [4] (although the other two contemporary Claudii Marcelli are also possibilities).
Marcellus must have held the praetorship at the latest in 52 BC,[5] but he could have held the office some years before – there is no mention of this in the historical record.
In 50 BC Marcellus was elected consul for the following year[6] alongside Lentulus Crus, as opponents to Caesar.[7] Both his brother Marcus and cousin Gaius (Minor) had strongly opposed Caesar during their own consulships,[8] working to have his proconsulship of Gaul terminated and to prevent Caesar from standing for election as consul of 48 BC in absentia. Caesar had blocked Marcus by working with the tribunes and the other consul, Servius Sulpicius Rufus, and then Gaius (Minor) by heavily bribing his consular colleague, Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus,[9] but had not yet been able to secure election to a second consulship without having to stand as a candidate in Rome and without relinquishing his proconsular command (which would expose him to prosecution[10] for illegalities in his first consulship). The election of Marcellus and Lentulus as consuls for 49 BC was within the normal framework of family connections and influences,[11] but also a snub to Caesar through his own candidate, Servius Sulpicius Galba.[12] Gaius Marcellus and Lentulus Crus continued the policy of the Claudii Marcelli in their opposition to Caesar.[13]
Civil War

Late in 50 BC, with much of the Senate wanting peace and unwilling to act against Caesar,[14] the consul Gaius Marcellus (Minor) took matters into his own hands and led a coup, without the backing of the Senate and directed against Caesar, aiming to put control of an army[15] into the hands of Pompeius.[16] Lentulus, as consul-elect certainly joined with him in this,[17] possibly Gaius Marcellus Major too.[18] Neither the Claudii Marcelli or Lentulus were particular adherents of Pompeius, a powerful magnate and general, but saw him as a tool to use against Caesar.[19]
On the Kalends 1 January 49 BC, Marcellus and Lentulus entered office, and were presented at once with letters from Caesar, the tenor of which was claimed to be a declaration of war: Caesar would stand his legions down provided Pompey did as well;[20] otherwise, he intended to retain them and "move quickly" to avenge the wrongs done against him—presumably against Rome.[21] The Senate's response was an ultimatum: Caesar was to disband his legions or be declared a public enemy.[22] After a week of angry exchanges, on 7 January 49 BC, the senate under Lentulus and Marcellus passed the "final decree" (senatus consultum ultimum);[23] the tribunes Antonius and Cassius fled with Caesar's envoy, the younger Gaius Scribonius Curio, from Rome to meet Caesar at Ravenna. Whilst Lentulus is recorded as the more vehement of the consuls in instigating the action that caused the tribunes to flee,[24] Marcellus does not seem to have been aloof.[25] On 10 January, Caesar famously crossed the Rubicon,[26] starting the Civil War.
Initially Marcellus remained in Rome, with the consuls opposing any accommodation with Caesar,[27] maintaining an anti-Caesarian hysteria, and pressuring Pompeius to cross Italy and raise troops.[28] On 17 January both Marcellus and his colleague followed Pompeius in leaving Rome ahead of Caesar's advancing forces,[29] scandalously without even making the usual sacrifices before departure.[30]
They went south to Teanum where, on 22 January, Lucius Julius Caesar, a kinsman serving with Caesar, brought conciliatory proposals from the proconsul.[31] On 25 January Cicero (whose letters provide the details of these events) met with Marcellus and Lentulus in Capua, along with many other senators who had fled Rome. Cicero reported to his correspondent, Atticus, that all were anxious that Caesar should stand by his offer and they had sent messages back to him.[32] However, within a few days Cicero was reporting to Atticus that the consuls did not care for peace.[33] Lentulus was even reported to have tried to recruit gladiators at one stage, but thought better of this when criticized.[34]
The whereabouts of Marcellus was not known, even by 7 February, when he was two days late for a meeting with Lentulus and Cicero. The latter despaired, writing in frustration that the consuls were of no use and that no recruiting was being done.[35] Pompeius himself wrote from Luceria on 17 February to Marcellus and Lentulus urging them to collect all the troops they could and join him at Brundisium.[36] By 20 February the consuls had done so.[37]
In late February Caesar sent his agent, Cornelius Balbus (the younger) on a secret mission to win over the consul Lentulus with the bribe of a lucrative province;[38] there is no hint that he made any similar offers to Marcellus, which may be an indication of the latter's comparative honesty or, perhaps more likely, his comparative insignificance in Roman politics. Balbus was too late in any case: Pompeius had sent both consuls and their forces on ahead of him to Dyrrhachium[39] and he followed with the remainder by 4 March, narrowly evading Caesar.[40] Cicero condemned this, as it destroyed the negotiations for peace which he claimed to be mediating.[41]
Very little is known specifically about Marcellus after crossing to Dyrrachium, though he is addressed by the Goddess Discordia in Petronius' Satyricon, urged to hold fast to the decree which commanded Caesar to resign his proconsulship,[42] the senatus consultum of 7 January 49 BC.
Pompeius placed much emphasis on his fleets to prevent Caesar from crossing from Italy. One fleet, that from Rhodes, was jointly commanded by Marcellus in association with Gaius Coponius.[43] Other than this, nothing is known of Marcellus' involvement in the Civil War. The command of the Rhodian fleet at Dyrrachium was later mentioned as being under the command of Quintus Coponius[44] and was wrecked in a storm.[45] It is speculated [46] that Marcellus was a casualty of the war – at least, he was not alive a few years later when Cicero was writing or delivering his Philippics[47] (March 43 BC). Marcellus is not mentioned further.
View Coin Pompey Magnus-Imperatorial 48BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Pompey Magnus, d.48 BC AR Denarius posthumous issue 42-38 BC NGC VG
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC, or Pompey the Great, was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic. He came from a wealthy Italian provincial background, and his father had been the first to establish the family among the Roman nobility. Pompey's immense success as a general while still very young enabled him to advance directly to his first consulship without meeting the normal requirements for office. His success as a military commander in Sulla's second civil war resulted in Sulla bestowing the nickname Magnus, "the Great", upon him. He was consul three times and celebrated three triumphs.

In mid-60 BC, Pompey joined Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gaius Julius Caesar in the unofficial military-political alliance known as the First Triumvirate, which Pompey's marriage to Caesar's daughter Julia helped secure. After the deaths of Julia and Crassus, Pompey sided with the optimates, the conservative faction of the Roman Senate. Pompey and Caesar then contended for the leadership of the Roman state, leading to a civil war. When Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, he sought refuge in Egypt, where he was assassinated. His career and defeat are significant in Rome's subsequent transformation from Republic to Empire.
View Coin Brutus Albinus-Imperatorial c. 48BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Albinus Bruti f., c.48 BC AR Denarius obv Pietas. rv caduceus NGC VF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5
Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (born April 27, ca. 85–81 BC, died 43 BC) was a Roman politician and general of the 1st century BC and one of the leading instigators of Julius Caesar's assassination.
For other people with similar names, see Decimus Junius Brutus (disambiguation).

Early life
He was the son of Decimus Junius Brutus, who was consul in 77 BC. His mother was possibly Sempronia, who was the wife of Decimus father in all surviving records, but historian Ronald Syme has propossed that Decimus father may have been married to another woman before Sempronia, a Postumia who could have been a sistser of the wife of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, since Decimus and Rufus's son were described as cousins.
Decimus was adopted by Aulus Postumius Albinus, but kept his own family name, only adding his adoptive father's cognomen Albinus. Syme felt this supports his assertment that Decimus mother was a previous wife of his father and not Sempronia, as having kinship with the Postumia gens would have made it logical for Aulus Postumius Albinus to adopt him.
On several occasions Julius Caesar expressed how he loved Decimus Brutus like a son. Ronald Syme argued that if a Brutus was the natural son of Caesar, Decimus was more likely than Marcus Brutus. Decimus was named an heir in the second degree in Caesar's will and was designated to become guardian of any child Caesar would have. Roman historian Appian interpeted this as being an adoption of Decimus by Caesar.
Decimus Brutus spent his youth mainly in the company of Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribonius Curio, and Marcus Antonius.

During the Wars
He served in Caesar's army during the Gallic wars and was given the command of the fleet in the war against the Veneti in 56 BC. In a decisive sea battle, Decimus Brutus succeeded in destroying the Veneti's fleet. Using sickle-like hooks fitted on long poles, Decimus Brutus attacked the enemy's sails, leaving them immobilized and easy prey to Roman boarding parties. He also served against Vercingetorix in 52 BC.
When the Republican Civil War broke out, Decimus Brutus sided with his commander, Caesar, and was entrusted once again with fleet operations. Richard Billows argued that Caesar loved Decimus Brutus almost as a son. In 50BC he married a woman whos family was anti-Caesar.
The Greek city of Massilia (present-day Marseille) sided with Pompey the Great, and Caesar, hastening to reach Hispania and cut Pompey off from his legions, left Decimus Brutus in charge of the naval blockade of Massilia. Within thirty days, Decimus Brutus built a fleet from scratch, defeated the Massilian fleet twice, and together with Gaius Trebonius (who commanded the siege) secured the capitulation of Massilia.

Ides of March and its aftermath
When Caesar returned to Rome as dictator after the final defeat of the Republican faction in the Battle of Munda (45 BC), Marcus Brutus joined the conspiracy against Caesar, after being convinced by Cassius and Decimus. In 44 BC, Decimus was made Praetor Peregrinus by personal appointment of Caesar and was designated to be the governor of Cisalpine Gaul in the following year.
On the Ides of March (March 15), when Caesar decided not to attend the Senate meeting in the curia at the theatre of Pompey due to the concerns of his wife, he was persuaded to attend by Decimus Brutus, who escorted him to the senate house, and neatly evaded Mark Antony, who wished to tell Caesar of the assassination plot. After Caesar was attacked by the first assassin, Servilius Casca, Decimus and the rest of the conspirators attacked and killed him. In all, Caesar suffered approximately 23 stab wounds. According to Nicolaus of Damascus, Decimus struck him through the thigh.
The assassins received an amnesty the next day, issued by the senate at the instigation of Mark Antony, Caesar's fellow consul. But the situation was not peaceful; Rome's population and Caesar's legionaries wanted to see the conspirators punished. The group decided to lie low, and Decimus used his office of Praetor Peregrinus to stay away from Rome. Decimus was named an heir in the second degree in Caesar's will.

Battle of Mutina
The climate of reconciliation soon passed and slowly the conspirators were starting to feel the strain of the assassination. Thus, at the beginning of 43 BC, Decimus Brutus hurried to Gallia Cisalpina, the province assigned to him as propraetor, and started to levy his own troops. He was ordered by the Senate to surrender his province to Antony but refused. This was the act of provocation to which Antony was only too happy to respond. With his own political situation on the verge of disaster and himself declared public enemy, defeating Decimus Brutus was a way for Antony to regain his ascendancy and get control of the strategically important Italian Gaul.
In 43 BC Decimus Brutus occupied Mutina, laying in provisions for a protracted siege. Antony obliged him, and blockaded Decimus Brutus' forces, intent on starving them out.
Nevertheless, the consuls of the year, Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Pansa, marched northward to raise the siege. Guided by Cicero (whose Philippics date from this time), the Senate was inclined to view Mark Antony as an enemy. Caesar Octavian, the nineteen-year-old heir of Caesar, and already raised to the rank of propraetor, accompanied Gaius Pansa north. The first confrontation occurred on April 14 at the battle of Forum Gallorum, where Antony hoped to deal with his opponents piecemeal. Antony defeated the forces of Gaius Pansa and Octavian, which resulted in Pansa suffering mortal wounds; however, Antony was then defeated by a surprise attack from Hirtius. A second battle on 21 April at Mutina resulted in a further defeat for Antony and Hirtius' death. Antony withdrew, unwilling to become the subject of a double circumvallation as Caesar had done to Vercingetorix at Alesia.
With the siege raised, Decimus Brutus cautiously thanked Octavian, now commander of the legions that had rescued him, from the other side of the river. Octavian coldly indicated he had come to oppose Antony, not aid Caesar's murderers. Decimus Brutus was given the command to wage war against Antony, but many of his soldiers deserted to Octavian.

Flight and death
His position deteriorating by the day, Decimus Brutus fled Italy, abandoning his legions. He attempted to reach Macedonia, where Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus had stationed themselves but was executed en route by a Gallic chief loyal to Mark Antony.
Several letters written by Decimus Brutus during the last two years of his life are preserved among Cicero's collected correspondence.

Cultural depictions
Decimus legacy is not as notable as that of another Brutus who was among the conspirators, Marcus Brutus, whom he is often confused for, or merged with, in depictions.
View Coin Pansa-Imperatorial 48BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL C.Vib. Pansa Caetronianus AR Denarius rv Jupiter Axurus std. c.48 BC. obv mask of Pan NGC Ch F Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5 Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus (died 22 April 43 BC) was consul of the Roman Republic in 43 BC. Although supporting Gaius Julius Caesar during the Civil War, he pushed for the restoration of the Republic upon Caesar’s death. He died of injuries sustained at the Battle of Forum Gallorum.
Early career

Pansa was the son of moneyer Gaius Vibius Caii filius Pansa. One of the first members of the gens Vibia to achieve political success, he was a Novus homo who rose through the cursus honorum as a result of his friendship with Julius Caesar, under whom he served in Gaul. Originally of Etruscan descent and hailing from Perusia (modern Perugia), and possibly from a family which had been proscribed under Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pansa was elected Plebeian Tribune in 51 BC where he vetoed a number of anti-Caesarean resolutions of the Senate. During the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, he actively supported the cause of the Caesareans. In 48 BC it is believed he was elected either as an aedile or as a praetor.
In 47 BC Pansa was appointed governor of Bithynia et Pontus, and returned to Rome sometime during 46 BC. In that same year, Caesar appointed Pansa as governor of Cisalpine Gaul to replace Marcus Junius Brutus, a post he took up on 15 March 45 BC. Around this time, he was also elected to the post of augur, one of the priests of Ancient Rome. In early 44 BC, Caesar designated him as the consul for the upcoming year (43 BC) and sometime before 21 April 44 BC, Pansa had returned from Cisalpine Gaul, and was based at Campania, waiting for the situation at Rome to settle down after the assassination of Julius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC.
Recognised as a moderate man and a supporter of peaceful compromise, upon his return to Rome, Pansa became the leader of the moderate Caesareans and one of the leading proponents for the return of the Republic, which put him on a collision course with Marcus Antonius, whom Pansa began to oppose by late 44 BC. He had also begun entering into discussions with Octavianus, Julius Caesar’s adopted son, who was also in Campania at the same time as Pansa. Nevertheless, Pansa was not totally hostile to Marcus Antonius, and while he wanted to limit Antonius’s power, he did not want to destroy him totally, nor was he willing to embrace the anti-Caesarean faction in the Senate and begin a new round of civil wars. Added to this was the fact that Pansa was married to Fufia, the daughter of Quintus Fufius Calenus, who was a key supporter of Antonius.
Consulship and death

On 1 January 43 BC, Pansa became consul along with Aulus Hirtius. They opened the debate in the Senate about what course of action was to be taken, if any, against Marcus Antonius. The discussion lasted four days; Pansa’s preference was to unite the Caesarean factions and restore harmony to the Republic, but to no avail. Octavianus refused to co-operate with Antonius, while Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Lucius Munatius Plancus continued to support Antonius. The end result was the Senate legitimised the army of Octavianus, and assigned him to work alongside Pansa and Hirtius in their upcoming fight against Antonius. The Senate, rejecting Antonius’s compromises, directed the consuls to do whatever was necessary to preserve the security of the Republic and relieve Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus at Mutina. Although Pansa, along with Lucius Julius Caesar successfully prevented Antonius being declared an Enemy of the state, a state of war was declared.
When discussing the state of affairs in the east under Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, Pansa supported the motion to declare the Caesarean Publius Cornelius Dolabella a public enemy, but managed to deny Cicero’s proposal to grant Cassius extraordinary powers in the east to deal with Dolabella. He also legitimised Marcus Junius Brutus’s command in Macedonia, and gave official recognition to Sextus Pompey in Sicily. With the Senate revoking much of the Lex Antonia, especially the contentious Lex Antonia Agraria, Pansa was forced to push through measures which confirmed the colonies for Caesar’s veterans, as well as confirming many of Caesar’s acts and the abolition of the office of Dictator.
All this time Pansa was also responsible for raising fresh levies in order to deal with Antonius. By 19 March 43 BC, Pansa was marching north with four legions of recruits, seeking to join up with Octavianus and Hirtius who were attempting to pin Antonius at Mutina. Antonius, hearing of Pansa’s approach, intercepted him on 14 April 43 BC at the Forum Gallorum, some seven miles south-east of Mutina. Antonius crushed Pansa’s army, and Pansa was wounded during the battle. He only managed to escape when Hirtius’s army surprised Antonius on the battlefield, forcing Antonius to flee. For his actions, Pansa (along with Octavianus and Hirtius) was proclaimed imperator by the Senate.
It was soon clear that Pansa was dying. He lived long enough to hear of Antonius’s second defeat at Mutina on 21 April, and the death of his consular colleague Hirtius during the battle. In his last hours he advised Octavianus not to trust Cicero and the rest of the Senate, and that they would turn on him at the first available opportunity. Pansa transferred command of his troops over to his quaestor, Manlius Torquatus, who arrested Pansa’s doctor, Glyco, on suspicion of having poisoned Pansa. Pansa died on 23 April 43 BC and received a magnificent public burial.
View Coin Scipio-Imperatorial c. 47-46BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Met.Pius Scipio,Imperator AR Denarius obv Jupiter. rv elephant. North Africa, c.47-46 BC NGC Ch VF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 5/5 In January 49 BCE, Metellus Scipio persuaded the senate to issue the ultimatum to Caesar that made war inevitable. That same year, he became proconsul of the province of Syria. In Syria and in the province of Asia, where he took up winter quarters, he used often oppressive means to gather ships, troops, and money:

He put a per capita tax on slaves and children; he taxed columns, doors, grain, soldiers, weaponry, oarsmen, and machinery; if a name could be found for a thing, that was seen as sufficient for making money from it.

Scipio put to death Alexander of Judaea, and was acclaimed Imperator for "alleged" victories in the Amanus Mountains — as noted disparagingly by Caesar.

In 48 BCE, he brought his forces from Asia to Greece, where he manoeuvred against Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus and Lucius Cassius until the arrival of Pompeius. At the Battle of Pharsalus, he commanded the centre. After the optimates' defeat by Caesar, Metellus fled to Africa. With the support of his former rival-in-romance Cato, he wrested the chief command of Pompeius's forces from the loyal Attius Varus, probably in early 47 BCE. In 46 BCE, he held command at the Battle of Thapsus "without skill or success," and was defeated along with Cato. After the defeat, he tried to escape to the Iberian Peninsula to continue the fight, but was cornered by the fleet of Publius Sittius. He committed suicide by stabbing himself so he would not fall into the hands of his enemies.
View Coin Cato-Imperatorial 47-46BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL M.Porcius Cato, c.47/6 BC AR Quinarius NGC F The triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus was broken in 54 BC at the same time as Cato's election as praetor. Judging their enemy in trouble, Cato and the Optimates faction of the Senate spent the coming years trying to force a break between Pompey and Caesar. It was a time of political turmoil, when popular figures like Publius Clodius tried to advance the cause of the common people of Rome, going so far as abandoning his patrician status to become a plebeian. As a leading spokesman for the Optimate cause, Cato stood against them all in defense of the traditional privileges of the aristocracy.

The following year, in 52 BC, Cato unsuccessfully ran for the office of consul. Cato accepted the loss, but refused to run a second time.

In 49 BC, Cato called for the Senate to formally relieve Caesar of his proconsular command, which he viewed as having expired, and to order Caesar's return to Rome as a civilian and thus without proconsular legal immunity. Pompey had blocked all previous attempts at ordering Caesar back to Rome but had grown concerned with Caesar's growing political influence and popularity with the plebs. With the tacit support of Pompey, Cato successfully passed a resolution ending Caesar's proconsular command. Caesar made numerous attempts to negotiate, at one point even conceding to give up all but one of his provinces and legions, allowing him to retain his immunity while diminishing his authority. This concession satisfied Pompey, but Cato, along with the consul Lentulus, refused to back down. Faced with the alternatives of returning to Rome for the inevitable trial and retiring into voluntary exile, Caesar crossed into Italy with only one legion, implicitly declaring war on the Senate.

Caesar crossed the Rubicon accompanied by the XIII Legion to take power from the Senate in the same way that Sulla had done in the past. Formally declared an enemy of the state, Caesar pursued the Senatorial party, now led by Pompey, who abandoned the city to raise arms in Greece, with Cato among his companions. After first reducing Caesar's army at the battle of Dyrrhachium, where Cato commanded the port, the army led by Pompey was ultimately defeated by Caesar in the Battle of Pharsalus (Cato wasn't present during the battle, Pompey had left him in command of Dyrrhachium). Cato and Metellus Scipio, however, did not concede defeat and escaped to the province of Africa with fifteen cohorts to continue resistance from Utica. Caesar pursued Cato and Metellus Scipio after installing the queen Cleopatra VII on the throne of Egypt, and in February 46 BC the outnumbered Caesarian legions defeated the army led by Metellus Scipio at the Battle of Thapsus. Acting against his usual strategy of clemency, Caesar did not accept surrender of Scipio's troops, but had them all slaughtered.

Death
In Utica, Cato did not participate in the battle and, unwilling to live in a world led by Caesar and refusing even implicitly to grant Caesar the power to pardon him, he committed suicide in April 46 BC. According to Plutarch, Cato attempted to kill himself by stabbing himself with his own sword, but failed to do so due to an injured hand. Plutarch wrote:

Cato did not immediately die of the wound; but struggling, fell off the bed, and throwing down a little mathematical table that stood by, made such a noise that the servants, hearing it, cried out. And immediately his son and all his friends came into the chamber, where, seeing him lie weltering in his own blood, great part of his bowels out of his body, but himself still alive and able to look at them, they all stood in horror. The physician went to him, and would have put in his bowels, which were not pierced, and sewed up the wound; but Cato, recovering himself, and understanding the intention, thrust away the physician, plucked out his own bowels, and tearing open the wound, immediately expired.[8]

On hearing of his death in Utica, Plutarch wrote that Caesar commented, "Cato, I grudge you your death, as you would have grudged me the preservation of your life."
View Coin Cnaeus Pompey Jr.-Imperatorial 46-45BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Pompey Jr., d.45 BC AR Denarius The Werner Collection Spain, 46-45 BC NGC XF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 4/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 4/5 Gnaeus Pompeius (ca. 75 BC – 12 April 45 BC), also known as Cnaeus Pompey or Pompey the Younger, was a Roman politician and general from the late Republic (1st century BC).

Cnaeus Pompeius was the elder son of Pompey the Great (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) by his third wife, Mucia Tertia. Both he and his younger brother Sextus Pompey grew up in the shadow of their father, one of Rome's best generals and not originally a conservative politician who drifted to the more traditional faction when Julius Caesar became a threat. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, thus starting a civil war, Gnaeus followed his father in their escape to the East, as did most of the conservative senators. Pompey's army lost the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, and Pompey himself had to run for his life, only to be murdered in Egypt on 29 September the same year.
After the murder, Gnaeus and his brother Sextus joined the resistance against Caesar in the Africa Province. Together with Metellus Scipio, Cato the Younger and other senators, they prepared to oppose Caesar and his army to the end. Caesar defeated Metellus Scipio and Cato, who subsequently committed suicide, at the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC. Gnaeus escaped, this time to the Balearic Islands, where he joined Sextus. Together with Titus Labienus, former general in Caesar's army, the Pompey brothers crossed over to Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal), where they raised yet another army.
Caesar soon followed and, on 17 March 45 BC, the armies met in the Battle of Munda. Both armies were large and led by able generals. The battle was closely fought, but eventually a cavalry charge by Caesar turned events to his side. In the battle and the panicked escape that followed, Titus Labienus and an estimated 30,000 men of the Pompeian side died. Gnaeus and Sextus managed to escape another time but supporters were difficult to find. It was by now clear Caesar had won the civil war. Within a few weeks, Gnaeus Pompeius was cornered and killed by Lucius Caesennius Lento. Sextus Pompeius was able to keep one step ahead of his enemies, and survived his brother for another decade.
View Coin Cassius-Imperatorial 44-42BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Cassius, d.42 BC AR Denarius The Werner Collection 42 BC. Legate L.Spinther. NGC Ch XF Strike: 5/5 Surface: 4/5 Strike: 5/5 Surface: 4/5 Cassius was elected as a Tribune of the Plebs in 49 BC. He opposed Caesar, and he commanded a fleet against him during Caesar's Civil War: after Caesar defeated Pompey in the Battle of Pharsalus, Caesar overtook Cassius and forced him to surrender. After Caesar's death, Cassius fled to the East, where he amassed an army of twelve legions. He was supported and made Governor by the Senate. Though he and Brutus marched west against the allies of the Second Triumvirate, Cassius was defeated at the Battle of Phillippi and committed suicide.

He followed the teachings of the philosopher Epicurus, although scholars debate whether or not these beliefs affected his political life. Cassius is a main character in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar that depicts the assassination of Caesar and its aftermath. He is also shown in the lowest circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno as punishment for betraying and killing Caesar.
View Coin Sextus Pompey-Imperatorial 43-36BC ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Sextus Pompey, d.35 BC AE As Sicilian mint, c.43-36 BC NGC G Sextus Pompeius was the youngest son of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great). His elder brother was Gnaeus Pompeius. Both boys grew up in the shadow of their father, one of Rome's greatest generals and an originally non-conservative politician who drifted to the more traditional faction when Julius Caesar became a threat.
When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, thus starting a civil war, Sextus' older brother Gnaeus followed their father in his escape to the East, as did most of the conservative senators. Sextus stayed in Rome in the care of his stepmother, Cornelia Metella. Pompey's army lost the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC and Pompey himself had to run for his life. Cornelia and Sextus met him in the island of Lesbos and together they fled to Egypt. On the arrival, Sextus watched his father being killed by treachery on September 29 of the same year. After the murder, Cornelia returned to Rome; in the following years, Sextus joined the resistance against Caesar in the African provinces. Together with Metellus Scipio, Cato the Younger, his brother Gnaeus and other senators, they prepared to oppose Caesar and his army to the end.

Caesar won the first battle at Thapsus in 46 BC against Metellus Scipio and Cato, who committed suicide. In 45 BC, Caesar managed to defeat the Pompeius brothers in the Battle of Munda, in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal). Gnaeus Pompeius was executed, but young Sextus escaped once more, this time to Sicily.
Back in Rome, Julius Caesar was killed on the Ides of March (March 15) 44 BC by a group of senators led by Cassius and Brutus. This incident did not lead to a return to normality, but provoked yet another civil war between Caesar's political heirs and his killers. The Second Triumvirate was formed by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aemelius Lepidus, with the intention of avenging Caesar and subduing all opposition. Sextus Pompeius in Sicily was certainly a rebellious man, but the faction of Cassius and Brutus was the second triumvirate's first priority. Thus, with the whole island as his base, Sextus had the time and resources to develop an army and, even more importantly, a strong navy operated by Sicilian marines.
Brutus and Cassius lost the twin battles of Philippi and committed suicide in 42 BC. After this, the triumvirs turned their attentions to Sicily and Sextus.
However, by this time Sextus was prepared for strong resistance. In the following years, military confrontations failed to return a conclusive victory for either side, although in 40 BC Sextus' admiral, the freedman Menas, seized Sardinia from Octavian's governor Marcus Lurius. In 39 BC, Sextus and the triumvirs signed for peace in the Pact of Misenum. The reason for this peace treaty was to secure the West before the anticipated campaign against the Parthian Empire. Antony, the leader of Rome's eastern provinces, needed a large number of legions for the coming campaign, which would take his army (ostensibly) through Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Parthia. Thus, an armistice with Sextus' large forces on Sicily proved useful.

The peace did not last for long. In Antony's absence, Octavian renewed the conflict against Sextus. Sextus and Octavian accused one another of violating the terms of the Pact of Misenum, but the final straw was the betrayal of Sardinia to Octavian by Menas. Octavian was defeated in the naval battle of Messina (37 BC), so he now turned to his friends Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Titus Statilius Taurus, both very talented generals. In addition, the third triumvir, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, raised 14 legions in his African provinces to help defeat Pompey.
Agrippa spent the winter training a navy on land and building a fleet near Lake Avernus. Agrippa fought Sextus at Mylae in August 36 BC, and again a month later, while Lepidus and Statilius Taurus invaded Sicily. In the Battle of Naulochus, Agrippa destroyed the remainder of Sextus' fleet. Sextus escaped to Asia Minor and, by abandoning Sicily, lost his only base of support.
Sextus Pompeius was caught in Miletus in 35 BC, and executed without trial by order of Antony via Marcus Titius, whom Sextus had once spared. Although Octavian later pretended the execution without a trial of Sextus was illegal because Sextus was a Roman citizen, Octavian himself had declared Sextus an outlaw without citizen rights.
View Coin Lepidus & Octavian-Imperatorial 42BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Lepidus & Octavian AR Denarius obv Lepidus. rv Octavian. Italian mint, 42 BC NGC F Strike: 2/5 Surface: 5/5 Strike: 2/5 Surface: 5/5 Lepidus on obverse, Octavian on reverse, two of the three members of the second triumvirate. See individual biographies under each respective person. Tough coin with only 17 graded in all grades. Seldom comes up at auction.
View Coin Marc Antony & Octavian-Imperatorial 41BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Marc Antony & Octavian AR Denarius The Werner Collection c.40-39 BC. obv M.Antony, NGC VF Strike: 2/5 Surface: 2/5 See biographies Under each party, Marc Antony and Octavian
View Coin Marc Antony & Cleopatra VII-Imperatorial 32/34BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Cleopatra VII+Marc Antony AR Denarius The Werner Collection Alexandria(?), c.34/32 BC NGC AG Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 See Antony biography below.

Cleopatra VII Philopator, 69 – 10 or 12 August 30 BC, was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the second to last Hellenistic state and the age that had lasted since the reign of Alexander (336–323 BC). Her native language was Koine Greek, and she was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language.

In 58 BC, Cleopatra presumably accompanied her father, Ptolemy XII, during his exile to Rome after a revolt in Egypt (a Roman client state) allowing his daughter Berenice IV to claim the throne. Berenice was killed in 55 BC when Ptolemy returned to Egypt with Roman military assistance. When he died in 51 BC, the joint reign of Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII began, but a falling-out between them led to open civil war. After losing the 48 BC Battle of Pharsalus in Greece against his rival Julius Caesar (a Roman dictator and consul) in Caesar's Civil War, the Roman statesman Pompey fled to Egypt. Pompey had been a political ally of Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy XIII, at the urging of his court eunuchs, had Pompey ambushed and killed before Caesar arrived and occupied Alexandria. Caesar then attempted to reconcile the rival Ptolemaic siblings, but Ptolemy's chief adviser Potheinos viewed Caesar's terms as favoring Cleopatra, so his forces besieged her and Caesar at the palace. Shortly after the siege was lifted by reinforcements, Ptolemy XIII died in the 47 BC Battle of the Nile; Cleopatra's half-sister Arsinoe IV was eventually exiled to Ephesus for her role in carrying out the siege. Caesar declared Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIV joint rulers, but maintained a private affair with Cleopatra that produced a son, Caesarion. Cleopatra traveled to Rome as a client queen in 46 and 44 BC, where she stayed at Caesar's villa. After the assassinations of Caesar and (on her orders) Ptolemy XIV in 44 BC, she named Caesarion co-ruler.
In the Liberators' civil war of 43–42 BC, Cleopatra sided with the Roman Second Triumvirate formed by Caesar's grandnephew and heir Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. After their meeting at Tarsos in 41 BC, the queen had an affair with Antony. He carried out the execution of Arsinoe at her request, and became increasingly reliant on Cleopatra for both funding and military aid during his invasions of the Parthian Empire and the Kingdom of Armenia. The Donations of Alexandria declared their children Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II, and Ptolemy Philadelphus rulers over various erstwhile territories under Antony's triumviral authority. This event, their marriage, and Antony's divorce of Octavian's sister Octavia Minor led to the Final War of the Roman Republic. Octavian engaged in a war of propaganda, forced Antony's allies in the Roman Senate to flee Rome in 32 BC, and declared war on Cleopatra. After defeating Antony and Cleopatra's naval fleet at the 31 BC Battle of Actium, Octavian's forces invaded Egypt in 30 BC and defeated Antony, leading to Antony's suicide. When Cleopatra learned that Octavian planned to bring her to his Roman triumphal procession, she killed herself by poisoning, contrary to the popular belief that she was bitten by an asp.
View Coin Marc Antony-Imperatorial 32-31BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Marc Antony, d.30 BC AR Denarius LEG XI 32-31BC die shift 32-31 BC NGC VF Antony was a supporter of Julius Caesar, and served as one of his generals during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War. Antony was appointed administrator of Italy while Caesar eliminated political opponents in Greece, North Africa, and Spain. After Caesar's death in 44 BC, Antony joined forces with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another of Caesar's generals, and Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, forming a three-man dictatorship known to historians as the Second Triumvirate. The Triumvirs defeated Caesar's murderers, the Liberatores, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, and divided the government of the Republic between themselves. Antony was assigned Rome's eastern provinces, including the client kingdom of Egypt, then ruled by Cleopatra VII Philopator, and was given the command in Rome's war against Parthia.

Relations among the triumvirs were strained as the various members sought greater political power. Civil war between Antony and Octavian was averted in 40 BC, when Antony married Octavian's sister, Octavia. Despite this marriage, Antony carried on a love affair with Cleopatra, who bore him three children, further straining Antony's relations with Octavian. Lepidus was expelled from the association in 36 BC, and in 33 BC disagreements between Antony and Octavian caused a split between the remaining Triumvirs. Their ongoing hostility erupted into civil war in 31 BC, as the Roman Senate, at Octavian's direction, declared war on Cleopatra and proclaimed Antony a traitor. Later that year, Antony was defeated by Octavian's forces at the Battle of Actium. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where they committed suicide.
View Coin Marc Antony-Imperatorial 32-31BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Marc Antony, d.30 BC AR Denarius rv standards. LEG III. 32-31 BC. obv galley. NGC F Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 LEG III. See above information
View Coin Marc Antony-Imperatorial 32-31BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Marc Antony, d.30 BC AR Denarius LEG V. Scuffs. 32-31 BC galley/standards NGC VG Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 See above
View Coin Julius Caesar-Imperatorial Dictator 49-44BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Julius Caesar, d.44 BC AR Denarius Lifetime Issue rv Venus hldg. Victory 44 BC. P.Sepullius Macer. NGC VF Strike: 2/5 Surface: 3/5 Rare Lifetime Portrait Denarius believes minted Jan-Feb 44BC

In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, a political alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass power as Populares were opposed by the Optimates within the Roman Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the frequent support of Cicero. Caesar rose to become one of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic through a number of his accomplishments, notably his victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC. During this time, Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both the Channel and the Rhine, when he built a bridge across the Rhine and crossed the Channel to invade Britain. Caesar's wars extended Rome's territory to the English Channel and the Rhine. These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, who had realigned himself with the Senate after the death of Crassus in 53 BC. With the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Leaving his command in Gaul meant losing his immunity from being charged as a criminal for waging unsanctioned wars. As a result, Caesar found himself with no other options but to cross the Rubicon with the 13th Legion, leaving his province and illegally entering Roman Italy under arms.[3] Civil war resulted, and Caesar's victory in the war put him in an unrivalled position of power and influence.

After assuming control of government, Caesar began a programme of social and governmental reforms, including the creation of the Julian calendar. He gave citizenship to many residents of far regions of the Roman Empire. He initiated land reform and support for veterans. He centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed "dictator in perpetuity", giving him additional authority. His populist and authoritarian reforms angered the elites, who began to conspire against him. On the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC Caesar was assassinated by a group of rebellious senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus and Decimus Junius Brutus.[4][5] A new series of civil wars broke out and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar's adopted heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavian set about solidifying his power and the era of the Roman Empire began.

Much of Caesar's life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources. Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history.
View Coin Julius Caesar Imperatorial 49-44BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Julius Caesar, d.44 BC AR Denarius Venus+Cupid/trophy+Gauls c.46-45 BC. Spanish mint. NGC VF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 Spanish Mint, circa 46-45BC, during the civil war. See above for full biography
View Coin Octavian-Imperatorial c. 30-29BC ANCIENT - ROMAN IMPERATORIAL (1st CENT BC) ROMAN IMPERATORIAL Octavian (Augustus) AR Denarius c.30-29 BC NGC VG He was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia. His maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir. Then known simply as Octavianus (often anglicized to Octavian), he along with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, and Antony committed suicide following his defeat at the Battle of Actium by Octavian in 31 BC.
View Coin Agrippa General, Consul of Plebs d. 12BC ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Agrippa, d.12 BC AE As rv Neptune stg. posthumous issue NGC F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 4/5 Strike: 5/5 Surface: 4/5
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa 64/62 BC – 12 BC) was a Roman consul, statesman, general and architect. He was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus and was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings in the history of Rome and for important military victories, most notably at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. As a result of these victories, Octavianus became the first Roman Emperor, adopting the name of Augustus. Agrippa assisted Augustus in making Rome "a city of marble" and renovating aqueducts to give all Romans, from every social class, access to the highest quality public services. He was responsible for the creation of many baths, porticoes and gardens, as well as the original Pantheon. Agrippa was also husband to Julia the Elder (who later married the second Emperor Tiberius), maternal grandfather to Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather to the Emperor Nero.

Agrippa was born between 64–62 BC, in an uncertain location. His father was perhaps called Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa. He had an elder brother whose name was also Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa, and a sister named Vipsania Polla. His family originated in the Italian countryside, and was of humble and plebeian origins. They had not been prominent in Roman public life. According to some scholars, including Victor Gardthausen, R. E. A. Palmer and David Ridgway, Agrippa's family was originally from Pisa in Etruria.
Agrippa was about the same age as Octavian (the future emperor Augustus), and the two were educated together and became close friends. Despite Agrippa's association with the family of Julius Caesar, his elder brother chose another side in the civil wars of the 40s BC, fighting under Cato against Caesar in Africa. When Cato's forces were defeated, Agrippa's brother was taken prisoner but freed after Octavian interceded on his behalf.
It is not known whether Agrippa fought against his brother in Africa, but he probably served in Caesar's campaign of 46–45 BC against Gnaeus Pompeius, which culminated in the Battle of Munda. Caesar regarded him highly enough to send him with Octavius in 45 BC to study in Apollonia (on the Illyrian coast) with the Macedonian legions, while Caesar consolidated his power in Rome. In the fourth month of their stay in Apollonia the news of Julius Caesar's assassination in March 44 BC reached them. Agrippa and another friend, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, advised Octavius to march on Rome with the troops from Macedonia, but Octavius decided to sail to Italy with a small retinue. After his arrival, he learned that Caesar had adopted him as his legal heir. Octavius at this time took Caesar's name, but modern historians refer to him as "Octavian" during this period.

Rise to power

After Octavian's return to Rome, he and his supporters realised they needed the support of legions. Agrippa helped Octavian to levy troops in Campania. Once Octavian had his legions, he made a pact with Mark Antony and Lepidus, legally established in 43 BC as the Second Triumvirate. Octavian and his consular colleague Quintus Pedius arranged for Caesar's assassins to be prosecuted in their absence, and Agrippa was entrusted with the case against Gaius Cassius Longinus. It may have been in the same year that Agrippa began his political career, holding the position of Tribune of the Plebs, which granted him entry to the Senate.

In 42 BC, Agrippa probably fought alongside Octavian and Antony in the Battle of Philippi. After their return to Rome, he played a major role in Octavian's war against Lucius Antonius and Fulvia Antonia, respectively the brother and wife of Mark Antony, which began in 41 BC and ended in the capture of Perusia in 40 BC. However, Salvidienus remained Octavian's main general at this time. After the Perusine war, Octavian departed for Gaul, leaving Agrippa as urban praetor in Rome with instructions to defend Italy against Sextus Pompeius, an opponent of the Triumvirate who was now occupying Sicily. In July 40, while Agrippa was occupied with the Ludi Apollinares that were the praetor's responsibility, Sextus began a raid in southern Italy. Agrippa advanced on him, forcing him to withdraw. However, the Triumvirate proved unstable, and in August 40 both Sextus and Antony invaded Italy (but not in an organized alliance). Agrippa's success in retaking Sipontum from Antony helped bring an end to the conflict. Agrippa was among the intermediaries through whom Antony and Octavian agreed once more upon peace. During the discussions Octavian learned that Salvidienus had offered to betray him to Antony, with the result that Salvidienus was prosecuted and either executed or committed suicide. Agrippa was now Octavian's leading general.

In 39 or 38 BC, Octavian appointed Agrippa governor of Transalpine Gaul, where in 38 BC he put down a rising of the Aquitanians. He also fought the Germanic tribes, becoming the next Roman general to cross the Rhine after Julius Caesar. He was summoned back to Rome by Octavian to assume the consulship for 37 BC. He was well below the usual minimum age of 43, but Octavian had suffered a humiliating naval defeat against Sextus Pompey and needed his friend to oversee the preparations for further warfare. Agrippa refused the offer of a triumph for his exploits in Gaul – on the grounds, says Dio, that he thought it improper to celebrate during a time of trouble for Octavian. Since Sextus Pompeius had command of the sea on the coasts of Italy, Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe harbour for Octavian's ships. He accomplished this by cutting through the strips of land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an outer harbour, while joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrinus to serve as an inner harbor. The new harbor-complex was named Portus Julius in Octavian's honour. Agrippa was also responsible for technological improvements, including larger ships and an improved form of grappling hook. About this time, he married Caecilia Pomponia Attica, daughter of Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus.
In 36 BC, Octavian and Agrippa set sail against Sextus. The fleet was badly damaged by storms and had to withdraw; Agrippa was left in charge of the second attempt. Thanks to superior technology and training, Agrippa and his men won decisive victories at Mylae and Naulochus, destroying all but seventeen of Sextus' ships and compelling most of his forces to surrender. Octavian, with his power increased, forced the triumvir Lepidus into retirement and entered Rome in triumph. Agrippa received the unprecedented honour of a naval crown decorated with the beaks of ships; as Dio remarks, this was "a decoration given to nobody before or since".

Agrippa participated in smaller military campaigns in 35 and 34 BC, but by the autumn of 34 he had returned to Rome. He rapidly set out on a campaign of public repairs and improvements, including renovation of the aqueduct known as the Aqua Marcia and an extension of its pipes to cover more of the city. He became the first water commissioner of Rome in 33 BC. Through his actions after being elected in 33 BC as one of the aediles (officials responsible for Rome's buildings and festivals), the streets were repaired and the sewers were cleaned out, while lavish public spectacles were put on. Agrippa signalled his tenure of office by effecting great improvements in the city of Rome, restoring and building aqueducts, enlarging and cleansing the Cloaca Maxima, constructing baths and porticos, and laying out gardens. He also gave a stimulus to the public exhibition of works of art. It was unusual for an ex-consul to hold the lower-ranking position of aedile, but Agrippa's success bore out this break with tradition. As emperor, Augustus would later boast that "he had found the city of brick but left it of marble", thanks in part to the great services provided by Agrippa under his reign.

Antony and Cleopatra

Agrippa was again called away to take command of the fleet when the war with Antony and Cleopatra broke out. He captured the strategically important city of Methone at the southwest of the Peloponnese, then sailed north, raiding the Greek coast and capturing Corcyra (modern Corfu). Octavian then brought his forces to Corcyra, occupying it as a naval base. Antony drew up his ships and troops at Actium, where Octavian moved to meet him. Agrippa meanwhile defeated Antony's supporter Quintus Nasidius in a naval battle at Patrae. Dio relates that as Agrippa moved to join Octavian near Actium, he encountered Gaius Sosius, one of Antony's lieutenants, who was making a surprise attack on the squadron of Lucius Tarius, a supporter of Octavian. Agrippa's unexpected arrival turned the battle around.
As the decisive battle approached, according to Dio, Octavian received intelligence that Antony and Cleopatra planned to break past his naval blockade and escape. At first he wished to allow the flagships past, arguing that he could overtake them with his lighter vessels and that the other opposing ships would surrender when they saw their leaders' cowardice. Agrippa objected, saying that Antony's ships, although larger, could outrun Octavian's if they hoisted sails, and that Octavian ought to fight now because Antony's fleet had just been struck by storms. Octavian followed his friend's advice.
On September 2, 31 BC, the Battle of Actium was fought. Octavian's victory, which gave him the mastery of Rome and the empire, was mainly due to Agrippa. Octavian then bestowed upon him the hand of his niece Claudia Marcella Major in 28 BC. He also served a second consulship with Octavian the same year. In 27 BC, Agrippa held a third consulship with Octavian, and in that year, the senate also bestowed upon Octavian the imperial title of Augustus.
In commemoration of the Battle of Actium, Agrippa built and dedicated the building that served as the Roman Pantheon before its destruction in 80 AD. Emperor Hadrian used Agrippa's design to build his own Pantheon, which survives in Rome. The inscription of the later building, which was built around 125, preserves the text of the inscription from Agrippa's building during his third consulship. The years following his third consulship, Agrippa spent in Gaul, reforming the provincial administration and taxation system, along with building an effective road system and aqueducts.

Late life

Agrippa's friendship with Augustus seems to have been clouded by the jealousy of Augustus' nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus, which was probably instigated by the intrigues of Livia, the third wife of Augustus, who feared Agrippa's influence over her husband. Traditionally it is said the result of such jealousy was that Agrippa left Rome, ostensibly to take over the governorship of eastern provinces – a sort of honourable exile, but he only sent his legate to Syria, while he himself remained at Lesbos and governed by proxy, though he may have been on a secret mission to negotiate with the Parthians about the return of the Roman legions' standards which they held. On the death of Marcellus, which took place within a year of his exile, he was recalled to Rome by Augustus, who found he could not dispense with his services. However, if one places the events in the context of the crisis of 23 BC it seems unlikely that, when facing significant opposition and about to make a major political climb down, the emperor Augustus would place a man in exile in charge of the largest body of Roman troops. What is far more likely is that Agrippa's 'exile' was actually the careful political positioning of a loyal lieutenant in command of a significant army as a backup plan in case the settlement plans of 23 BC failed and Augustus needed military support. Moreover, after 23 BC as part of what became known as Augustus' Second Constitutional Settlement, Agrippa's constitutional powers were greatly increased to provide the Principate of Augustus with greater constitutional stability by providing for a political heir or replacement for Augustus if he were to succumb to his habitual ill health or was assassinated. In the course of the year, proconsular imperium, similar to Augustus' power, was conferred upon Agrippa for five years. The exact nature of the grant is uncertain but it probably covered Augustus' imperial provinces, east and west, perhaps lacking authority over the provinces of the Senate. That was to come later, as was the jealously guarded tribunicia potestas, or powers of a tribune of the plebeians. These great powers of state are not usually heaped upon a former exile.

It is said that Maecenas advised Augustus to attach Agrippa still more closely to him by making him his son-in-law. He accordingly induced him to divorce Marcella and marry his daughter, Julia the Elder—the widow of Marcellus, equally celebrated for her beauty, abilities, and her shameless extravagance—by 21 BC. In 19 BC, Agrippa was employed in putting down a rising of the Cantabrians in Hispania (Cantabrian Wars).
In 18 BC, Agrippa's powers were even further increased to almost match those of Augustus. That year his proconsular imperium was augmented to cover the provinces of the Senate. More than that, he was finally granted tribunicia potestas, or powers of a tribune of the plebeians. As was the case with Augustus, Agrippa’s grant of tribunician powers was conferred without his having to actually hold that office. These powers were considerable, giving him veto power over the acts of the Senate or other magistracies, including those of other tribunes, and the power to present laws for approval by the People. Just as important, a tribune’s person was sacred, meaning that any person who harmfully touched them or impeded their actions, including political acts, could lawfully be killed. After the grant of these powers Agrippa was, on paper, almost as powerful as Augustus was. However, there was no doubt that Augustus was the man in charge.
Agrippa was appointed governor of the eastern provinces a second time in 17 BC, where his just and prudent administration won him the respect and good-will of the provincials, especially from the Jewish population. Agrippa also restored effective Roman control over the Cimmerian Chersonnese (Crimean Peninsula) during his governorship.
Agrippa’s last public service was his beginning of the conquest of the upper Danube River region, which would become the Roman province of Pannonia in 13 BC. He died at Campania in 12 BC at the age of 51.
View Coin Augustus 27BC-14AD ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Augustus, 27 BC-AD 14 AR Denarius Denarius Circa 24BC rv Gaius & Lucius Caesars Lugdunum NGC AU Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 Augustus (Latin: Imperator Caesar Divi filius Augustus; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) was a Roman statesman and military leader who was the first Emperor of the Roman Empire, controlling Imperial Rome from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. His status as the founder of the Roman Principate has consolidated an enduring legacy as one of the most effective and controversial leaders in human history.
View Coin Augustus 27BC-14AD ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Augustus, 27 BC-AD 14 AR Denarius Denarius Circa 24AD NGC VG See biography Uber Octavian and Augustus
View Coin Augustus 27BC-14AD ANCIENT - ROMAN PROVINCIAL (2nd CENT BC - 3rd CENT BC) ROMAN EMPIRE Augustus, 27 BC-AD 14 AR Cistophorus Cistophorus Roman Empire The Werner Collection Ephesus NGC Ch F See biography above
View Coin Augustus 27BC-14AD ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Augustus, 27 BC-AD 14 AR Quinarius under legate P.Carisius Emerita, c.25-23 BC NGC XF Early coin of the reign of Augustus c. 25-23BC, Publius Carisius, as legatus and propraetor, together with the word Emerita, apparently referring to the town of Augusta Emerita in Lusitania, which the emperor Augustus established for the emeriti, veterans of the war in Hispania.

For a biography of Octavian Augustus, see Octavian.
View Coin Augustus 27BC-14AD ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Augustus, 27 BC-AD 14 AE As rv altar enclosure posthumous under Tiberius NGC F Strike: 4/5 Surface: 1/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 1/5 See above
View Coin Nero Claudius Drusus Imperator d. 9BC ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Nero Claudius Drusus AE Sestertius d. 9BC The Werner Collection posthumous, c.AD 41-50 NGC Ch F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 2/5 Strike: 5/5 Surface: 2/5 Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (January 14, 38 BC– summer of 9 BC), born Decimus Claudius Drusus, also called Drusus Claudius Nero, Drusus, Drusus I, Nero Drusus, or Drusus the Elder was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a patrician Claudian on his birth father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family. He was the son of Livia Drusilla and the legal stepson of her second husband, the Emperor Augustus. He was also brother of the Emperor Tiberius, father to both the Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus, paternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero.

He launched the first major Roman campaigns across the Rhine and began the conquest of Germania, becoming the first Roman general to reach the Weser and Elbe rivers. In 12 BC, Drusus led a successful campaign into Germania, subjugating the Sicambri. Later that year he led a naval expedition against Germanic tribes along the North Sea coast, conquering the Batavi and the Frisii, and defeating the Chauci near the mouth of the Weser. In 11 BC, he conquered the Usipetes and the Marsi, extending Roman control to the Upper Weser. In 10 BC, he launched a campaign against the Chatti and the resurgent Sicambri, subjugating both. The following year, while serving as consul, he conquered the Mattiaci and defeated the Marcomanni and the Cherusci, the latter near the Elbe. However, Drusus died later that year, depriving Rome of one of its best generals.
View Coin Gaius Caesar 12BC-4AD ANCIENT - ROMAN PROVINCIAL (2nd CENT BC - 3rd CENT BC) PHRYGIA, LAODICEA Gaius Caesar, 12 BC-AD 4 AE16 Phrygia, Laodicea The Werner Collection rv eagle stg., monograms NGC Ch F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5
Gaius 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, Gaius 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, Gaius 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 for the following year, 1 AD. The year after Gaius' consulship, Lucius died at Massilia in the month of August. Approximately eighteen months later, Gaius died of an illness in Lycia. He was married to his second cousin Livilla but they did not have children. In 4 AD, following the deaths of Gaius and Lucius, Augustus adopted his stepson, Tiberius, as well as his sole-surviving grandson, Agrippa Postumus.
View Coin Livia d. 29AD ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Livia, wife of Augustus AE Sestertius obv mule-drawn carpentum AD 22/23, under Tiberius NGC Ch F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 2/5 Livia Drusilla (30 January 59/58 BC – 28 September AD 29) was Roman empress from 27 BC to 14 AD as the wife of Emperor Augustus. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14.

Livia was the daughter of Roman Senator Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus and his wife Alfidia. She married Tiberius Claudius Nero around 43 BC, and they had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus. In 38 BC, she divorced Tiberius Claudius Nero and married the political leader Octavian. The Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus in 27 BC, effectively making him emperor. Livia then became the Roman empress. In this role, she served as an influential confidant of her husband and was rumoured to have been responsible for the deaths of a number of Augustus' relatives, including his grandson Agrippa Postumus. Augustus eventually adopted her son Tiberius as his heir.
After Augustus died in 14 AD, Tiberius became emperor. Livia continued to exert political influence as the mother of the emperor. She died in 29 AD. She was the great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, grandmother of the emperor Claudius, and the great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero. In 42 AD Livia was deified by Claudius, who acknowledged her title of Augusta.
View Coin Tiberius 14-37 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Tiberius, AD 14-37 AR Denarius 14-37AD rv Livia as Pax Lugdunum NGC VF Born to Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla in a Claudian family, he was given the personal name Tiberius Claudius Nero. His mother divorced Nero and married Octavian—later to ascend to Emperor as Augustus—who officially became his stepfather. Tiberius would later marry Augustus' daughter (from his marriage to Scribonia), Julia the Elder, and even later be adopted by Augustus. Through the adoption, he officially became a Julian, assuming the name Tiberius Julius Caesar. The emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for the following thirty years; historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty. In relations to the other emperors of this dynasty, Tiberius was the stepson of Augustus, grand-uncle of Caligula, paternal uncle of Claudius, and great-grand uncle of Nero. His 22-and-a-half-year reign would be the longest after Augustus's until Antoninus Pius, who surpassed his reign by a few months.

Tiberius was one of the greatest Roman generals; his conquest of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and temporarily, parts of Germania, laid the foundations for the northern frontier. Even so, he came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive and sombre ruler who never really desired to be emperor; Pliny the Elder called him "the gloomiest of men." After the death of his son Drusus Julius Caesar in 23 AD, Tiberius became more reclusive and aloof. In 26 AD he removed himself from Rome and left administration largely in the hands of his unscrupulous Praetorian prefects Lucius Aelius Sejanus and Quintus Naevius Sutorius Macro. When Tiberius died, he was succeeded by his grand-nephew and adopted grandson, Caligula.
View Coin Tiberius 14-37 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Tiberius, AD 14-37 AR Denarius rv Livia as Pax Lugdunum NGC Ch VF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 See biography above
View Coin Tiberius 14-37 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Tiberius, AD 14-37 AE Sestertius The Werner Collection obv hexastyle temple NGC F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 2/5 See biography above
View Coin Tiberius 14-37 ANCIENT - ROMAN PROVINCIAL (2nd CENT BC - 3rd CENT BC) SPAIN, CARTHAGO NOVA Tiberius, AD 14-37 AE27 AE27 Provincial Spain, Carthago Nova Rev, Nero & Drusus III D. 31 & 33 Nero & Drusus Caesars rv confronted busts of NGC Ch F Provincial from Spain of Tiberius with Nero and Drusus III Caesars on reverse. The boys died 31 and 33AD respectively. See above for Tiberius biography. See below for Nero and Drusus III biography.
View Coin Germanicus Caesar d. 19 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Germanicus, d.AD 19 AE As rv SC in inscription posthumous under Claudius NGC F Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5 Germanicus (Latin: Germanicus Julius Caesar; 24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and a prominent general of the Roman Empire, who was known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4, he was adopted by his paternal uncle, Tiberius, who succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor a decade later. As a result, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family which he was related to on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii was further consolidated through a marriage between himself and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the nephew of Tiberius, the father of Caligula, and the maternal grandfather of Nero.

During the reign of Augustus, Germanicus enjoyed an accelerated political career as the heir of the emperor's heir, entering the office of quaestor five years before the legal age in AD 7. He held that office until AD 11, and was elected consul for the first time in AD 12. The year after, he was made proconsul of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, and all of Gaul. From there he commanded eight legions, about one-third of the entire Roman army, which he led against the Germanic tribes in his campaigns from AD 14 to 16. He avenged the Roman Empire's defeat in the Teutoburg Forest and retrieved two of the three legionary eagles that had been lost during the battle. In AD 17 he returned to Rome where he received a triumph before leaving to reorganize the provinces of Asia Minor, whereby he incorporated the provinces of Cappadocia and Commagene in AD 18.
While in the eastern provinces, he came into conflict with the governor of Syria, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso. During their feud, Germanicus became ill in Antioch, where he died on 10 October AD 19. His death has been attributed to poison by ancient sources, but that was never proven. As a famous general, he was widely popular and regarded as the ideal Roman long after his death. To the Roman people, Germanicus was the Roman equivalent of Alexander the Great due to the nature of his death at a young age, his virtuous character, his dashing physique, and his military renown.

Germanicus's praenomen is unknown, but he was probably named Nero Claudius Drusus after his father (conventionally called "Drusus"), or possibly Tiberius Claudius Nero after his uncle. He took the agnomen Germanicus, awarded posthumously to his father in honor of his victories in Germania, when he nominally became head of the family in 9 BC. Germanicus held the title as he was the head of his family after his father's death. By AD 4 he was adopted as Tiberius's son and heir. As a result, Germanicus was adopted out of the Claudii and into the Julii. In accordance with Roman naming conventions, he adopted the name "Julius Caesar" while retaining his agnomen, becoming Germanicus Julius Caesar. Upon Germanicus's adoption into the Julii, his brother Claudius became the sole legal representative of his father, and his brother inherited the agnomen "Germanicus" as the new head of the family.

Germanicus was born in Rome on 24 May 15 BC to Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, and had two younger siblings: a sister, Livilla; and a brother, Claudius. His paternal grandmother was Livia, who had divorced his grandfather, Tiberius Claudius Nero around 24 years before Germanicus birth, and was married to the emperor Augustus. His maternal grandparents were the triumvir Mark Antony and Augustus's sister Octavia Minor. Germanicus was a key figure in Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire. As well as being the great-nephew of Augustus, he was the nephew of the second emperor, Tiberius, his son Gaius would become the third emperor, Caligula, who would be succeeded by Germanicus's brother Claudius, and his grandson would become the fifth emperor, Nero.
When Augustus's chosen successor, Gaius Caesar, died in AD 4, he briefly considered Germanicus as his heir. Livia persuaded him to choose Tiberius, his stepson from Livia's first marriage to Tiberius Claudius Nero, instead. As part of the succession arrangements, Augustus adopted Tiberius on 26 June AD 4, but first required him to adopt Germanicus, thus placing him next in the line of succession after Tiberius. Germanicus married Augustus's grand-daughter, Agrippina the Elder, probably the next year, to further strengthen his ties to the imperial family. The couple had nine children: Nero Julius Caesar; Drusus Caesar; Tiberius Julius Caesar (not to be confused with emperor Tiberius); a child of unknown name (normally referred to as Ignotus); Gaius the Elder; Gaius the Younger (the future emperor "Caligula"); Agrippina the Younger (the future empress); Julia Drusilla; and Julia Livilla. Only six of his children came of age; Tiberius and the Ignotus died as infants, and Gaius the Elder in his early childhood.
View Coin Drusus Caesar d. 23 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Drusus, d.AD 23 AE As rv SC in inscription AD 22/23, under Tiberius NGC Ch F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 Drusus Julius Caesar (14 BC– 14 September AD 23), was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19.

He was born at Rome to a prominent branch of the gens Claudia, the son of Tiberius and his first wife, Vipsania Agrippina. His name at birth was Nero Claudius Drusus after his paternal uncle, Drusus the Elder. In AD 4, he assumed the name Julius Caesar following his father's adoption into the Julii by Augustus, and became Drusus Julius Caesar.
Drusus first entered politics with the office of quaestor in AD 10. His political career mirrored that of Germanicus, and he assumed all his offices at the same age as him. Following the model of Augustus, it was intended that the two would rule together. They were both popular, and many dedications have been found in their honor across Roman Italy. Cassius Dio calls him "Castor" in his Roman History, likening Drusus and Germanicus to the twins, Castor and Pollux, of Roman mythology.

He was born in 14 BC in Rome with the name Nero Claudius Drusus, and is often referred to by historians as Drusus II, Drusus the Younger and Drusus Minor to distinguish him from his paternal uncle, Nero Claudius Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius after whom Drusus was named. Drusus was the maternal grandson of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a close friend of Augustus, and his first wife Caecilia Attica.
As a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was a close relative of all five Julio-Claudian emperors. His father was emperor, and his adoptive grandfather was the founder of the Roman Empire, Augustus. On his mother's side, he was the cousin of Caligula, a paternal cousin of Claudius, and a first cousin once removed of Nero - all future emperors of Rome.
Before Tiberius, the heirs of Augustus were the sons of Marcus Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, whom he adopted and made heir. They advanced through their careers at the same pace and were going to rule together; however, they died young, forcing Augustus to draw another line of succession. In AD 4, Augustus adopted Tiberius on condition that Tiberius adopt Germanicus. This made Tiberius the heir of Augustus, and Germanicus the heir of Tiberius. Like the sons of Agrippa, it was the intention of Augustus that Germanicus and Drusus would rule together.
Later that year, Drusus was married to his paternal cousin, Livilla, to bring him closer to the Julians. Tacitus says she was unattractive as a child, but grew up to be beautiful. Their daughter Julia was born not long after the marriage, and they had twin sons: Tiberius Gemellus and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Germanicus II Gemellus in 19, the latter of whom died while still an infant in 23.
Just as Agrippa's sons were, Drusus was about the same age as Germanicus, and both of them also followed parallel careers. Drusus and Germanicus held all their offices at the same age, and progressed through the cursus honorum at the same pace. Both held the office of quaestor at the same age, both were exempted from holding the praetorship, they held their first and second consulships at the same age, and both were given proconsular imperium maius when they were sent to govern Germania and Illyricum respectively.

Drusus died suddenly 14 September 23, seemingly from natural causes. Ancient historians, such as Tacitus and Suetonius, claim he died amid a feud with the powerful Sejanus, Praetorian prefect of Rome. They allege that he had been murdered. In their account, Sejanus had seduced his wife Livilla, and with the help of a doctor she had poisoned Drusus. Despite the rumors, Tiberius did not suspect Sejanus and the two remained friends until Sejanus' fall from grace in 31.
View Coin Nero and Drusus III Caesar’s d. 31 and 33 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Nero Caesar+Drusus Caesar AE Dupondius The Werner Collection died AD 30/1+AD 33 NGC Ch F Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5 Drusus Caesar (Drusus III) (AD 8 – AD 33) and Nero Julius Caesar (AD 6 - AD 31) were the adopted grandsons and heirs of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Born into the prominent Julio Claudian dynasty, Drusus and Nero were the sons of Tiberius' general and heir, Germanicus. After the deaths of their father and of Tiberius' son, Drusus the Younger, Drusus and his brother Nero Julius Caesar were adopted together by Tiberius in September AD 23. As a result of being heirs of the emperor, he and his brother enjoyed accelerated political careers.

Sejanus, the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, had become powerful in Rome and is believed by ancient writers such as Suetonius and Tacitus to have been responsible for the downfall of Drusus the younger. As Sejanus' power grew, other members of the imperial family began to fall as well. In AD 29, Tiberius wrote a letter to the Senate attacking Nero and his mother, and the Senate had them both exiled. Two years later, Nero died in exile on the island of Ponza. Drusus was later imprisoned following similar charges as his brother, and remained in prison from AD 30 until his death three years later. Their deaths allowed for the adoption and ascension of their third brother, Gaius Caligula, following the death of Tiberius in AD 37.
View Coin Tiberius & Germanicus II Gemellus (Twins) 19-37 & 23 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Tib. & Germ. Gemellus AE Sestertius AD 22/23, under Tiberius twins of Drusus & Livilla NGC VG Strike: 5/5 Surface: 2/5 This sestersius was minted by Tiberius to celebrate the birth of twins Tiberius and Germanicus Gemellus, sons of Drusus and Livilla. Tiberius Gemellus lived 19-23, dying at age 4. Germanicus Gemellus lived 19-37, likely murdered by Caligula as Tiberius left both Gemellus and Caligula as his heirs.
View Coin Gemellus Caesar d. 37 ANCIENT - ROMAN PROVINCIAL (2nd CENT BC - 3rd CENT BC) LYDIA, PHILADELPHIA Tiberius Gemellus(?) AE15 Lydia, Philadelphia The Werner Collection AD 35-37. rv fulmen. NGC F Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5 Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5
Tiberius Julius Caesar Nero Gemellus, known as Tiberius Gemellus (10 October AD 19–37/38) was the son of Drusus and Livilla, the grandson of the Emperor Tiberius, and the second cousin of the Emperor Caligula. Gemellus is a nickname meaning "the twin". His twin brother, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Germanicus II Gemellus, died while still an infant in 23. His father and older cousins died, and are suspected by contemporary sources as having been systematically eliminated by the powerful praetorian prefect Sejanus. Their removal allowed Gemellus and Caligula to be named joint-heirs by Tiberius in 35, a decision that ultimately resulted in Caligula assuming power and having Gemellus killed, or by forcing him to kill himself, in late 37 or early 38.
View Coin Antonia d. 37 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Antonia, d.AD 37 AE Dupondius The Werner Collection Posthumous. Western mint. NGC Ch VF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 2/5
Antonia Minor (31 January 36 BC - 1 May AD 37) was the younger of two surviving daughters of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor. She was a niece of the Emperor Augustus, sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and maternal great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero. She outlived her husband Drusus, her oldest son, her daughter and several of her grandchildren.
View Coin Caligula 37-41 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Caligula, AD 37-41 AR Denarius The Werner Collection rv Divus Augustus NGC F Strike: 4/5 Surface: 1/5 Ultra rare Denarius:

Although he was born Gaius Caesar, after Julius Caesar, he acquired the nickname "Caligula" (meaning "little soldier's boot", the diminutive form of caliga) from his father's soldiers during their campaign in Germania. When Germanicus died at Antioch in AD 19, Agrippina returned with her six children to Rome, where she became entangled in a bitter feud with Tiberius. The conflict eventually led to the destruction of her family, with Caligula as the sole male survivor. Untouched by the deadly intrigues, Caligula accepted an invitation in AD 31 to join the emperor on the island of Capri, where Tiberius had withdrawn five years earlier. Following the death of Tiberius, Caligula succeeded his adoptive grandfather as emperor in AD 37.

There are few surviving sources about the reign of Caligula, although he is described as a noble and moderate emperor during the first six months of his rule. After this, the sources focus upon his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversion, presenting him as an insane tyrant. While the reliability of these sources is questionable, it is known that during his brief reign, Caligula worked to increase the unconstrained personal power of the emperor, as opposed to countervailing powers within the principate. He directed much of his attention to ambitious construction projects and luxurious dwellings for himself, and initiated the construction of two aqueducts in Rome: the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus. During his reign, the empire annexed the client kingdom of Mauretania as a province.

In early AD 41, Caligula was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy by officers of the Praetorian Guard, senators, and courtiers. The conspirators' attempt to use the opportunity to restore the Roman Republic was thwarted, however. On the day of the assassination of Caligula, the Praetorians declared Caligula's uncle, Claudius, the next Roman emperor. Although the Julio-Claudian dynasty continued to rule the empire until the fall of his nephew Nero in AD 68, Caligula's death marked the official end of the Julii Caesares in the male line.
View Coin Caligula 37-41 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Caligula, AD 37-41 AE Sestertius Orichalcum Sestertius NGC F See comments above
View Coin Caligula 37-41 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Caligula, AD 37-41 AE As rv Vesta std. NGC F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 See above biography
View Coin Caligula 37-41 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Caligula, AD 37-41 AE Quadrans The Werner Collection NGC Ch VF See biography above
View Coin Claudius 41-54 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Claudius, AD 41-54 AR Denarius 41-54 The Werner Collection rv Constantia std. NGC Ch XF Strike: 5/5 Surface: 1/5 Ultra Rare Denarius:

Claudius' infirmity probably saved him from the fate of many other nobles during the purges of Tiberius's and Caligula's reigns; potential enemies did not see him as a serious threat. His survival led to his being declared Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last man of his family. Despite his lack of experience, Claudius proved to be an able and efficient administrator. He was also an ambitious builder, constructing many new roads, aqueducts, and canals across the Empire. During his reign the Empire began the conquest of Britain (if the earlier invasions of Britain by Caesar and Caligula's aborted attempts are not counted). Having a personal interest in law, he presided at public trials, and issued up to twenty edicts a day. He was seen as vulnerable throughout his reign, particularly by elements of the nobility. Claudius was constantly forced to shore up his position; this resulted in the deaths of many senators. These events damaged his reputation among the ancient writers, though more recent historians have revised this opinion. Many authors contend that he was murdered by his own wife. After his death in 54 AD (at the age of 63), his grand-nephew, step-son, and adopted son Nero succeeded him as Emperor. His 13-year reign (slightly longer than Nero's) would not be surpassed by any successors until that of Domitian, who reigned for 15 years.

He was a descendant of the Octavii Rufi (through Gaius Octavius), Julii Caesares (through Julia Minor and Julia Antonia), and the Claudii Nerones (through Nero Claudius Drusus). He was a step-grandson (through his father Drusus) and great-nephew (through his mother Antonia Minor) of Augustus. He was a nephew of Tiberius through his father, Tiberius' brother. Through his brother Germanicus, Claudius was an uncle of Caligula and a great-uncle of Nero.
View Coin Claudius 41-54 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Claudius, AD 41-54 AE Sestertius The Werner Collection NGC VG See above biography
View Coin Claudius 41-54 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Claudius, AD 41-54 AE Dupondius rv Ceres std. Thracian(?) mint NGC VF Strike: 5/5 Surface: 2/5 See biography above.
View Coin Claudius 41-54 ANCIENT - ROMAN EMPIRE (1st CENT BC - 5th CENT AD) ROMAN EMPIRE Claudius, AD 41-54 AE As rv Libertas stg. NGC Ch F Strike: 5/5 Surface: 2/5 See biography above
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