Gaius (Caligula), with Agrippina Senior, 37-41. Denarius (Silver, 18 mm, 3.73 g, 10 h), Lugdunum, 37-38. C•CAESAR•AVG•GERM•P•M•TR•POT Bare head of Gaius to right. Rev. AGRIPPINA•MAT•C•CAES•AVG•GERM Draped bust of Agrippina Senior to right, her hair falling in queue down her neck. BMC 8. CBN 12. Cohen 4. Giard 162. RIC 8. An exceptional example of this rare issue, lightly toned and well struck, with two excellent portraits; undoubtedly among the finest known. Extremely fine.


Struck at Lugdunum at the very beginning of Caligula’s reign, this magnificent denarius is one of the most personal expressions of the new emperor’s dynastic policy. Its reverse honors his mother Agrippina the Elder, granddaughter of Augustus and widow of the immensely popular Germanicus, identifying her explicitly as AGRIPPINA MAT C CAES AVG GERM — 'Agrippina, mother of Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.' The emphasis was highly deliberate: Agrippina had been persecuted by Tiberius, exiled to Pandateria in 29, and died there in 33, but one of Caligula’s first acts after his accession was to retrieve her ashes and solemnly deposit them in the Mausoleum of Augustus. By restoring his mother’s memory, Caligula simultaneously distanced himself from Tiberius and emphasized his own descent from Augustus: he was not merely Tiberius’ successor, but the son of Germanicus and Agrippina and, through her, the great-grandson of Augustus.