Apollo on a coin of Brutus is never just Apollo. The god of Delphi and of Octavian's family pretensions stares out from the obverse of this denarius (Crawford 503/1), struck at a military mint shadowing Brutus through Lycia in the early summer of 42 BC, while on the reverse a trophy of helmet, cuirass and two shields (one with the distinctive incurved sides of a Thracian or Anatolian type) rises over a male and female captive, each slumped with head in hand in the immemorial pose of the conquered. The legend BRVTVS IMP in exergue answers Q • CAEPIO above: Brutus parading the adoptive name from his Servilius Caepio lineage alongside the imperatorial acclamation he had won subduing the cities of Lycia, Xanthos most savagely among them, to extract the silver and manpower he would need against Antony and Octavian.
This is a victory coin, then, but the victory it celebrates is over Roman provincials browbeaten into funding a civil war, and the trophy was struck within months of Philippi, where Brutus would fall on his own sword and the Republic he claimed to be defending would die with him. Apollo, soon enough, would belong to the other side.
- Mint
- Military mint traveling with Brutus in Lycia
- Struck
- Early summer 42 BC
- Authority
- Brutus
- Reverse
- Trophy composed of helmet, cuirass, and two shields with one having incurved sides; male and female captives seated at base below, each resting head in hand