In 17 BC, Augustus staged the Ludi Saeculares, the Secular Games, a once in a lifetime festival that announced a new age (saeculum) for Rome and, not coincidentally, for the regime that had ended a century of civil war. " Turn the coin over, and Augustus delivers the punchline. There is the youthful, laureate head of the Divine Julius, the comet of 44 BC blazing above him with its four rays and tail, the sidus Iulium that had appeared during Caesar's funeral games and been read, brilliantly, as his soul ascending to the gods.
The pairing is a careful piece of dynastic theology. The herald announces a new age; the comet certifies that the man inaugurating it is the son of a god. Octavian had spent thirty years turning that comet into a constitution, and on this small disc of silver the project is complete: heaven has signed off on the Augustan settlement, and the saeculum belongs to the Julii.
- Mint
- Rome
- Struck
- 17 BC
- Authority
- Augustus
- Reverse
- Youthful, laureate head of deified Julius Caesar right with a comet above having four rays and a tail