Crawford 323/1, Roman Republic, 101 BC., moneyer Lucius Julius, Denarius

Roman Republic (Rome mint 101 BC.), moneyer Lucius Julius.
Denarius (18-19 mm, 3,89 g), silver, axis medal alignment ?? (ca. 0°),
Obv.: Winged helmeted head of Roma right, grain ear behind.
Rev.: Victory in biga galloping right, holding reins in both hands; below, L IVLI. “Lucius Julius”.
Crawford 323/1 ; Sydenham 585 ; Babelon (Iulia) 3 ; BMCRR Rome 1676 .

For Crawford estimated this type 47 obverse dies and 59 reverse dies. But this type seems rarer than general works suggest.

The gens Julia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator and grand uncle of the emperor Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century AD. The nomen Julius became very common in imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.

This magistrate is probably the son Lucius Caesar, he was a monetary with C. Claudius Pulcher, and he became consul in 90 BC. with P. Rutilius Lupus, when the Social War broke out. With his lieutenants Sylla, Crassus, P. Lentulus, T. Didius and M. Marcellus, he attacked the Samnites and was defeated in a first campaign by Vettius Cato. He recovered, a little later, inflicting a loss of six thousand men on Papius Metellus, but he was defeated a second time by Marius Egnatius. Lucius Caesar is the author of the lex Jalia de civilale which established, in the face of common dangers, the alliance of Latin cities under Roman supremacy. In the year 89 BC, after a great victory, he besieged Asculum; the same year he was censor with P. Licinius Crassus. At the end of the war, in this character bears as its type the ordinary biga of Victory.
For Crawford, this Lucius Julius does not belong to the direct line of Julius Caesar.

The year 101 is still dominated by unrest in the western Provinces. Marius defeats the Cimbri in Cisalpine and puts an end to the barbarian invasions in Gaul.
In the East, Mithridates VI of Pontus (121-63 BC) and Nicomedes III of Bithynia (128-94 BC) shared Paphlagonia and occupied Galatia.