L HOSTILIUS SASERNA SILVER DENARIUS – GALLIC PORTRAIT AND CHARIOT ISSUE OF 48 BC – XF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERATORIAL COIN (Inv. 19045)

$2,950.00

19045. ROMAN IMPERATORIAL. L. HOSTILIUS SASERNA, 48 BC.
Silver Denarius, 3.86 g, 20 mm.
Obv. Head of a Gaul (perhaps Vercingetorix) with flowing hair to right, shield at left. Rev. [L HOSTILIVS] SASERN, Gallic warrior holding spear standing left in galloping biga right, driver holding reins and whip.
Crawford 448/2a; Sydenham 952.
NGC graded XF, Strike 4/5, Surface 5/5.

The famous type of this denarius reflects the Roman gaze upon the defeated Gauls in the aftermath of the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC). The obverse of the denarius is widely believed to represent Vercingetorix, the last great Gallic chieftain to defy Rome. In early 52 BC, shortly after becoming king of the Arverni, Vercingetorix forged a coalition of Gallic tribes to drive the Romans out of Gaul, but in September of the same year he found himself defeated by Julius Caesar in the hard–fought Battle of Alesia. Still unbroken, Vercingetorix surrendered before he was taken to Rome to languish in prison for almost six years. At last, in 46 BC, he was brought out to march in Caesar’s great Gallic triumph before he was executed. The denarius reverse depicts the Celtic war chariot, an exotic weapon not normally used by continental Gallic peoples, but which the Romans first faced during the invasion of Britannia in 55 BC.