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'Eid Mar' Issue Struck By Brutus To Commemorate Caesar's Death Among The Greatest Of Anicent Silver Coins

Brutus was born about 85 BC, the product of two of Rome's most distinguished families. The themes of Republican liberty and the defeat of tyrants ran strong in his bloodline, with one of his distant ancestors, L. Junius Brutus, expelling the last Tarquin king of Rome.

He joined the army of Pompey against Caesar during the Great Roman Civil War (49-45 BC), sparked by a series of political and military confrontations within the Roman Republic. After Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus, Brutus sought and obtained Caesar's pardon. During the dictatorship, he stood in high favor and won plum positions in the regime.

As Caesar's megalomania increased, Brutus' misgivings about the fate of his beloved Republic grew. When his friend Gaius Cassius Longinus asked him to join a conspiracy against the dictator, Brutus accepted. On the Ides of March, 44 BC, a cabal of senators led by Brutus and Cassius surrounded Caesar during a session of the Senate and, in a bloody, frenzied scene reenacted countless times since, stabbed him to death. Caesar's poignant last words were delivered in Greek as Brutus delivered the fatal thrust: "Kai su, teknon?" ("You too, my child?"). Shakespeare would later translate this to Latin and change it slightly to create the immortal line, "Et tu, Brute?"

Silver Coins

The conspirators expected to be hailed as liberators, but the Roman populace was horrified by Caesar's murder. Brutus left Rome in April barely ahead of a lynch mob. He joined with Cassius in assembling a pro-Republic power base in Macedonia and the East, where they could wage war against Caesar's successors, Mark Antony and Octavian.

A successful campaign against the Bessi in Thrace won him acclamation as Imperator (victorious general), after which he began striking coins to pay his growing army. His early coinage follows traditional themes, but his final type, the Eid Mar issue of mid-42 BC, broke the old Republican taboo by placing his own portrait on the obverse, coupled with the pileus or cap of liberty, traditionally given to slaves who had received their freedom, between the daggers that executed Caesar.

In a final twist of fate, Brutus used the same dagger he had plunged into Caesar to take his own life following final defeat of the assassins at the second battle of Philippi on Oct. 23, 42 BC. The great rarity of the Eid Mar denarii today is doubtless because the coin was recalled and melted down by the victors, Marcus Antonius and Octavian.

One of these coins struck by Brutus is featured in Heritage's World Coin auction scheduled for Sept. 7-10, 2011, in Long Beach, Calif. The coin in 2008 was ranked No. 1 by numismatists on a list of the "100 Greatest Ancient Coins."

"The Eid Mar offered here has perhaps the most distinguished pedigree of all surviving specimens, with auction records dating back to 1930," says David Michaels, director of ancient coins at Heritage Auctions. "It has resided in the collections of Hall Park McCollough, Sy Weintraub, Nelson Bunker Hunt and Peter Weller. Of all known Eid Mar denarii, this example inarguably has the best metal quality — important since most Eid Mars were apparently struck in slightly base silver and survive in a highly porous state that is subject to cracking and delamination."

Photos and article courtesy of www.heritageauctions.com