DR-804 | Crawford: 509/4
Quintus Cornuficius
Quintus Cornuficius

Gens: Cornuficia
Moneyer: Quintus Cornuficius
Date and mint: 42 BC - ?


Obverse: Bust of Africa, right, draped and with elephant skin. Dotted border.
Legend:
Symbols: Obverse behind, Two Spears

Reverse: Q. Cornuficius standing left, veiled and holding lituus in right hand; on the right, Juno Sospita, with a raven perched on her shoulder, holding a spear and shield in her left hand and with her right crowning Q. Cornuficius. Dotted border.
Legend: Q CORNVFICI AVGVR IMP

Comment: The gens Cornuficia was a little-known plebeian family, barely documented in the history of Roma. Its most prominent member was Quintus Cornificius, a senator and career military man, whose career was marked by the turbulent years after Caesar's death.

Cornificius had been appointed by Caesar as governor of Africa, a strategic province for its grain supply. After the assassination of the dictator in 44 BC, the Senate confirmed him in office and Cornificius remained loyal to senatorial authority. He thus represented an intermediate position: he was not part of the group of Caesaricides, but he also did not accept the rule of Mark Antony or Caesar's heirs. Their resistance, however, was brief. The Second Triumvirate entrusted Africa to Titus Sextius, who defeated him in combat; Cornificius died shortly afterwards, around 43/42 BC, even before the battle of Philippi. His fall symbolized the elimination of the last senatorial centers in the provinces, a prelude to the final outcome between triumvirs and caesaricides in Macedonia.

The denarius minted by Cornificius in 42 BC. reflects his attempt at legitimation in the midst of this struggle. On the obverse the personification of Africa appears, with the characteristic elephant skin and spears, alluding to the territory under its control and the strategic importance of the province. On the reverse, Cornificio is presented as augur and imperator, crowned by Juno Sospita, protective warrior goddess. The iconography thus combines provincial symbolism, religious authority and military prestige to project his figure as a legitimate ruler against the power of the triumvirs.

In this way, Cornificio's coin constitutes a unique testimony of a defeated political path: that of those who, without being caesaricides, tried to defend the autonomy of the Senate against Caesar's heirs. A brief cause, stifled in Africa, but which left its echo in this exceptional coinage.

Provenance: Münzkabinett Berlin ()
Price: €