{"id":61066,"date":"2020-04-06T20:46:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T18:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/?post_type=ciekawostki&p=61066"},"modified":"2024-09-01T00:37:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T22:37:00","slug":"denar-showing-octavian-and-caesars-comet","status":"publish","type":"ciekawostki","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/denar-showing-octavian-and-caesars-comet\/","title":{"rendered":"Denar showing Octavian and “Caesar’s comet”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roman denarius depicting Augustus<\/a> (reigned in 27 BCE – 14 CE). The silver coin was minted around 19- 18 BCE, probably in one of the Spanish mints. On the obverse, we see the princeps with a wreath of oak leaves on the head (so-called corna civica<\/em>). On the reverse, in turn, there is an embossed inscription DIVVS IVLIVS<\/em> and a comet with eight rays and a tail of fire. <\/p>\n

The coin is propaganda<\/a> and refers to the divinity of Julius Caesar<\/a> and the event that was to take place in July 44 BCE – four months after the murder of Caesar<\/a> – during a great ceremony in memory of Caesar – Ludi Victoriae Caesaris<\/em>. At that time, an extremely bright object was to appear in the sky that caught the attention of the Romans gathered. Due to the fact that Caesar recognized himself (as a member of the Julius family) as a descendant of the goddess Venus<\/a> herself, and the Roman Senate<\/a> officially recognized Caesar as a god, crowds seeing the comet in the sky considered this as confirmation of Caesar’s divinity, and the star itself was to contain the soul of the leader.<\/p>\n

As Suetonius<\/a> later reports:<\/p>\n

\n

[…] a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour, and was believed to be the soul of Caesar.<\/p>\n

– Suetonius<\/strong>, Julius Caesar<\/a><\/em>, 88<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Obviously, the phenomenon observed by the ancients was a falling comet, which astronomers felt could be the brightest that humans have ever observed. Ancient authors described it as Sidus Iulium<\/em> (“Julian Star”) or Caesaris astrum<\/em> (“Star of Julius Caesar”).<\/p>\n

In 44 BCE Gaius Octavian<\/a> – not yet having any real significance on the political scene of Rome<\/a> – used this event for propaganda purposes. In 42 BCE the Temple of Caesar was founded, which in 29 BCE received a dedication in honour of the event with the comet. A large image of Caesar was placed on the wall of the temple, on whose forehead – according to Ovid<\/a> (“Metamorphoses”, XV.745-842) – a comet was attached. In this way, Octavian emphasized the symbolism of the event, the divinity of Caesar and emphasized his legitimacy of power as the successor of the beloved leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":61064,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"kategorie_ciekawostek":[61,211],"class_list":["post-61066","ciekawostki","type-ciekawostki","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategorie_ciekawostek-artifact","kategorie_ciekawostek-coins"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/61066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ciekawostki"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/61066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategorie_ciekawostek","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategorie_ciekawostek?post=61066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}