Dinarii BC

[FreeEnergy]

I am researching something, and want to see if there's someone out who may know this, or can look it up in the book (I don't own one). I want to know if there was any dinarii (dinar, dinarius) coins minted in B.C. (before 0 A.D.) that actually depict a roman emperor.

I've found a few that are dated 230 A.D. and up. Anything that shows up on eBay that's B.C. is usually heads of Mars, Hercules, Apollo, Minerva and such (gods), and not actually an emperor (Caesar).

http://cgi.ebay.com/EXCELLENT-REPUBLICAN-Anonymous-81-BC-AR-Denarius-/220595397710?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item335c82a44e#ht_536wt_905

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s0235.html

http://wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s0257.html

http://www.anythinganywhere.com/commerce/coins/coinpics/rom-rep.htm

Can this "Head of Roma" be considered an actual Ceasar coin?
http://www.anythinganywhere.com/commerce/coins/coinpics/ancr-rep-syd602.jpg

[FreeEnergy]

Ok, I think I found one, it was found in Spain:

http://cgi.ebay.com/19BC-AUGUSTUS-Silver-Denarius-NGC-Graded-Roman-CoinRARE-/380257602068#ht_2081wt_1139

http://cgi.ebay.com/AUGUSTUS-ROMAN-IMPERIAL-SILVER-DENARIUS-27-BC-14-AD_W0QQitemZ390253730693QQ

These are too bright and shiny for being 2000 years old...may be a fake?

When one puts gods on coins, he doesn't usually put at the same time yourself on coins, right?

[madfranks]

I wish I knew more about ancient coins to be able to answer your question. I know two things about them: there are tons of varieties of old Greek and Roman coins, and there are tons of fakes out there.

[RJB]

I don't know anything ;D

I just hit thanks because I like looking at ancient shiny things.

[FreeEnergy]

Well, guys, I don't know much either. But I am poking around at it for an interesting reason.

I was going through a Bible, because lately I've ran into a few smart knowledgeable people who don't believe Rome existed 2000 years ago. They say it either didn't, or it did but it wasn't that long ago, but rather 500-1000 years ago tops.

So, to make a long story short, Cosimo Medici, a banker from Florence turned leader of Catholic church (and he kept papal position in the family for generations) has acquired a printing press and was modifying history through printing Bible and various other history books. First time in history, there was no printing press before. So it is believed he made a few changes to the Bible.

One of the changes was that he wrote non-existing "Roman Empire" into the ancient stories of the Bible. So, for instance, when you read about Jesus Christ, there's nothing at all about Rome, or soldiers for chapters, then in one paragraph it says "Pilat (who was probably some local Judean ruler) talked to Jesus blah..blah...something..." Luca even says Pilat was friend with Irod. then out of the blue "roman soldiers take Jesus ..." . In one place or so, in each book. When you look at it specifically, it almost feels like someone just inserted word "roman" there, and if you take it out nothing changes, and actually the books becomes more clear.

So, long story short, there's a famous saying by Jesus "Give to God what's God's, and to Ceasar what is Ceasar's". And apparently he asks traders to show him a coin, and they give him a dinarius with a Ceasar on one side. So it almost sounds like at the time, if you accept that the story is 2000 years old, most dinarii - and especially the most common ones in circulation - had Greek Gods on them, not roman emperors.


This is a long story but probably an admittance that I like to look at old shiny things too :)

[JohnQPublic]

A couple of points:

1. re: Roman coins. I don't know much either, but I do have a Roman coin from Alexandria (part of the empire). I think it has an image of a Caeser on it. I think a lot of the parts of the conquered empire put the image on their coin.

2. re: Historical revisionism. A Russian colleague where I work was talking about this about 10 years ago. This is research of some Russian historian. I don't know if it ts true or not, but am highly skeptical. His argument is that there are no actual documents around, and that, as you say, the moderns had the opportunity to rewrite history a few hundred years ago.