DR-919 | Crawford: 546/7
Gaius Octavius / Lucius Pinarius Scarpus
Gaius Octavius / Lucius Pinarius Scarpus

Gens: Julia / Pinaria
Moneyer: Gaius Octavius / Lucius Pinarius Scarpus
Date and mint: 31 BC - ?


Obverse: Open right hand. Dotted border.
Legend: SCARPVS IMP

Reverse: Victoria over globe, right, holding crown tied with fillet in right hand and palm branch over left shoulder with left hand. Dotted border.
Legend: CAESARI DIVI F

Comment: The gens Julia, from which Gaius Octavius descended, was one of the oldest and most prestigious patrician families in Rome, which attributed its lineage to Venus and Aeneas. After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Octavian became his adopted heir and knew how to exploit that divine filiation to legitimize himself as divi filius. The gens Pinaria, on the other hand, was much less known, although it had ancient roots; His representative in this issue, Lucio Pinario Escarpo, was Caesar's grandnephew and naval commander in the service of Octavian, playing a decisive role in the final years of the Republic.

After the victory of Actium (31 BC) against Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian became absolute master of the Roman world. Egypt was incorporated as a province under his personal control and in 29 BC. He returned to Rome to celebrate a triple triumph. Finally, in 27 BC, he formally returned the administration of the provinces to the Senate, which in turn granted him the title of Augustus and a life-long imperium. With this, the republican stage was closed and the Principality, the first stage of the Empire, was born.

The denarius of Pinario Escarpo, considered the last of the Republic collected in Crawford's RRC, contains a strong symbolism of transition. On the obverse an open hand appears with the legend SCARPVS IMP, emblem of fides and concord. The gesture alludes to the loyalty of Escarpus, who had been Antony's general, but transferred his loyalty to Octavian after Actium, recognizing the new leader as the undisputed arbiter.

On the reverse, Victoria is represented standing on a globe, holding a crown and a palm, with the inscription CAESARI DIVI F. The iconography proclaimed the universal dominion of Roma after Actium, the military glory of Octavian and the continuity of the mission of Caesar deified. The star above the globe can be interpreted as an allusion to the Sidus Iulium, the comet that symbolized the apotheosis of Caesar, reinforcing the bond between adoptive father and heir.

This denarius, minted in the months immediately following the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, functions as a piece of propaganda and as historical testimony: it celebrates Octavian's definitive victory, underlines the legitimacy granted to him by his Julian affiliation and, at the same time, symbolizes the end of the Republic. It is not by chance that it is considered the symbolic closing of the republican catalog: with it the denarii of the Republic are said goodbye and the long era of the Empire under Augustus begins.

Provenance: Numismatica Ars Classica (2012)
Price: 12,500 €