DR-382 | Crawford: 348/1
Lucius Rubrius Dossenus
Lucius Rubrius Dossenus

Gens: Rubria
Moneyer: Lucius Rubrius Dossenus
Date and mint: 87 BC - Rome


Obverse: Laureate bust of Jupiter, right, with Scepter on shoulders. Dotted border.
Legend: DOSSEN

Reverse: Triumphal quadriga (with lightning bolt on side panel), right; above, Victoria with crown. Dotted border.
Legend: L RVBRI

Comment: The Rubria gens was a plebeian family with little presence in the politics of Roma, although its origin seems to date back to the earliest stage of the Republic. His cognomen Dossenus is unusual and is related to a comic figure from the Atlantean farce, which could indicate a family nickname of a burlesque or theatrical nature. However, in the political sphere, the gens hardly left any mark beyond this issuance of denarii.

The moneyer Lucio Rubrio Dossenus appears only documented on these coins from 87 BC. Like many young moneyer magistrates, he used his position to project a message of prestige, linking himself to Jupiter and the triumphant victory of Roma. No further details are known about his career, but his choice of iconography reveals the desire to transmit a respectable lineage related to the traditional values of the Republic.

The year 87 B.C. It was especially turbulent in Rome. It was the second year of the first civil war, when conflicts between the supporters of Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla brought political violence to the extreme. After Sulla's departure to war against Mithridates in the East, Marius and his ally Cinna regained power in Rome. The city experienced massacres, proscriptions and a climate of political terror. In this context, the exaltation of Jupiter as protector of Roma and triumphant Victoria on the coin of Rubrio Dossenus functioned as a message of hope and stability in the midst of the civil war.

On the obverse of the denarius appears the laureate bust of Jupiter, with a scepter on his shoulders and the legend DOSSEN. The choice of Jupiter, supreme god and guarantor of order, responded to the need to underline divine protection over Roma in times of crisis. The reverse shows Victoria crowning a triumphal chariot, with a lightning bolt engraved on the side panel of the chariot, a direct symbol of Jupiter. The legend L RVBRI identifies the magistrate.

The propaganda message is clear: the supreme god protects Roma and ensures its victory. In a time of internal confrontations and external wars, the image of the maximum divinity associated with the triumph sought to inspire confidence in the destiny of Roma, above factional disputes.

Provenance: Gemini LLC (2005)
Price: 4,940 €