Lucius Cassius Longinus, silver denarius, 3.94 g.

Lucius Cassius Longinus, silver denarius, 3.94 g.

Lucius Cassius Longinus

c. 52 BCE

Obverse: Veiled and diademed head of Vesta facing left; on right kylix. Border of dots.

Reverse: Togate man facing left, dropping tablet marked V into cista; on right, LONGIN III V downwards. Border of dots.

Style/Period: Roman Republic

Lucius Cassius Longinus was proconsul in 48 BCE and tribune to the plebeians in 44. He was the younger brother of Cassius, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. The scene on the reverse depicts a single unidentified man voting. The scene commemorates the passing of the Lex Cassia tabellaria proposed in 137 BCE, which allowed the comitium to vote by using the ballot (see coins C016 and C038). The image of Vesta on the obverse also connects the coin type to the events of 113 BCE, when L. Cassius Longinus Ravilla presided over the trial of three Vestal Virgins (see coin C038). The "V" on the tabella means "VTI ROGAS" or a favorable vote for the legislation.
-- Bradford W. Wendel, LU '96

Bibliography: E. Babelon, Description historique et chronologique des monnaies de la republique romaine (Paris and London 1885-1886) Cassia, 10; H. A. Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum (London 1910), I, 494, no. 3931; T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, II (New York 1952) 435; E. A. Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Republic (London 1952) 156, no. 935; L. R. Taylor, Roman Voting Assemblies from the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar (Jerome Lectures, 8, Ann Arbor 1966) 126 n. 11; M. H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (London 1974) 440, no. 413/1.

Classics Department Collection

C041

Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890