L. Mussidius Longus, 42 BC. Aureus (Gold, 21 mm, 8.09 g, 7 h), Rome. Head of Ceres to right, wearing wreath of grain ears. Rev. L•MVSSIDI / LONGVS in two lines within wreath of grain ears tied at bottom. Babelon (Mussidia) 3. Bahrfeldt 35b. Calicó 24a. Crawford 494/45. CRI 185b. RBW 1750-1. Sydenham 1090a. Extremely rare. Minor marks and light scratches, otherwise, very fine.


Struck at Rome in 42 BC, this extremely rare aureus belongs to the exceptional gold coinage produced as the triumviral regime mobilised its resources for the war against Brutus and Cassius. L. Mussidius Longus, otherwise little known, was one of the four moneyers active at Rome that year, the traditional college of three having temporarily been expanded to four. The obverse shows Ceres crowned with ears of grain, while the moneyer’s name on the reverse is enclosed within a grain wreath, reinforcing the theme of agricultural abundance and grain supply.

The imagery may also have had a more immediate political resonance: by this time Sextus Pompey had established himself in Sicily, and his growing naval power posed an obvious potential threat to Rome’s grain supply. Beneath its traditional religious imagery, the aureus thus belongs firmly to the political, financial and military crisis of the civil wars that culminated later that year at Philippi.