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                         C. Cassius Longinus Aureus

The final issue of Cassius. This reverse type commemorates the
capture of Rhodes by Cassius, who seized booty amounting to eight
thousand talents from the public treasury after he had contemptuously
spurned the title of king which the terror-stricken Rhodians had offered
him. The reverse design is significant in that the aplustre was a common
symbol of naval superiority, while the floreate endings of its branches
allude to the rose, the civic emblem of Rhodes.

C. Cassius Longinus. Summer 42 BC. AV Aureus (8.04 gm). Sardis mint? M.
Servilius, legate. C. CASSI. IMP, laureate head of Libertas right / M.
SERVILIVS left, LEG right, aplustre with each branch ending in a flower.
Crawford 505/1; Sear 224; Sydenham 1311; BMCRR (East) 82; Bahrfeldt 60.
Superb EF. Very rare.

From Triton III (CNG/Freeman&Sear/NAC, 30 November-1 December 1999), lot
842, estimated at $15,000.

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