Denarius Hostilia: Lucius Hostilius Saserna, L•HOSTILIVS SASERNA

Lucius Hostilius Saserna served as moneyer in 48 BC alongside his brother Aulus, and the pair issued several distinct types that same year — an unusual concentration of output from a single family. The year itself sits at the hinge of the Roman civil war: Caesar had just crossed the Rubicon two years prior, Pompey was still in the field, and the Roman minting apparatus was increasingly pressed into political service. Saserna's issues are generally understood as Caesarian in sympathy, produced under circumstances where a moneyer's allegiances were rarely neutral.