Published in Corpus Nummorum Romanorum
548. Claudius AV Aureus. Rome or Lugdunum, AD 46-47. TI CLAVD CAESAR AVG P M TR P VI IMP XI, laureate head right / DE BRITANN on architrave of triumphal arch surmounted by equestrian statue to left flanked by two trophies. RIC 33 (Rome); C. 17; BMCRE 32 (Rome); Calicó 349; Lyon 52; Von Kaenel, type 27; CNR XIV, p. 51, 33 (this coin). 7.68g, 19mm, 3h. Extremely Fine; pleasing style, and in exceptional condition for the issue. Very Rare and historically interesting.
22,500
This coin published in A. Banti & L. Simonetti, Corpus Nummorum Romanorum Vol. XIV (Florence, 1977); From the Long Valley River Collection; Acquired from Numismatica Ars Classica AG. In AD 43, Claudius sent the distinguished senator Aulus Plautius with four legions to Britannia after an appeal from the Roman ally Verica, ousted king of the Atrebates. The Roman invasion was contested by an alliance of tribes led by Togodumnus and Caratacus, sons of the late king of the Catuvellauni, Cunobelinus. The legions met stiff resistance at a river crossing thought to be near Rochester on the river Medway; in the course of this two-day engagement the Legio II Augusta commanded by the future emperor Vespasian forded the crossing and engaged the Britons while an auxiliary unit of Batavians swam the river and made a surprise attack on the Britons’ armed chariots. The first day ended without a decisive result, and on the second the contest was again indecisive until Gnaeus Hosidius Geta personally led his legion (probably the IX Hispana) into the fray; the legate was himself nearly surrounded, but turned the battle and defeated the enemy so resoundingly that he was awarded triumphal ornaments even though he had not yet held the consulship (Cassius Dio, LX.20). Plautius halted the advance after a further engagement at the Thames, to which the Britons had withdrawn as their next line of defence, and sent for the emperor as he had been instructed to do. Claudius brought with him reinforcements, doubtless including a sizeable part of the Praetorian Guard, heavy armaments, and a contingent of war elephants to overawe the natives. Cassius Dio relates that Claudius, taking command of the Roman forces, “crossed the stream, and engaging the barbarians, who had gathered at his approach... defeated them and captured Camulodunum, the capital of Cunobelinus. Thereupon he won over numerous tribes, in some cases by capitulation, in others by force, and was saluted as imperator several times, contrary to precedent”. For the victories won in Britannia, the Senate voted Claudius the title of ‘Britannicus’, a triumph, and that there should be two triumphal arches erected - one in the city, and the other in Gaul, whence Claudius had sailed when he crossed over to Britain. This rare denarius depicts the anticipated triumphal Arch of Claudius, commissioned in AD 43, but which would not be dedicated until AD 51. It was a conversion of one of the arches of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct where it crossed the Via Flaminia, the main road to the north of Rome, but is now lost and a fragment of the inscription is all that remains, housed in the Capitoline Museum. The full inscription has been reconstructed however from the sisterarch that was built at Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer).
The Invasion of Britain
549. Claudius AR Denarius. Rome or Lugdunum, AD 46-47. TI CLAVD CAESAR•AVG•P•M•TR•P•VI IMP•XI, laureate head right / DE BRITANN on architrave of triumphal arch surmounted by equestrian statue to left between two trophies. RIC 34 (Rome); BMCRE 35 (Rome); RSC 18; Lyon 53. 3.85g, 19mm, 4h. 5,000 Good Extremely Fine; sound, lustrous metal. Very Rare; an outstanding example of the type, arguably the finest present on CoinArchives. From the Long Valley River Collection; Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction XV, 5 April 2018, lot 501.
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