Catalog
Denarius - Juba II Caesarea
| Issuer | Mauretania |
|---|---|
| Year | 7 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | REX IVBA (Translation: King Juba) |
| Reverse description | Central inscription in three lines — CAES / AREA / RXXXII — enclosed within a circular wreath of laurel or oak branches tied at the base, rendered with careful detail in the hammered style. The wreath fills the entire field and is bounded by a plain inner border, with the leafy branches spreading symmetrically. The legend references Caesarea, the royal capital, and the regnal year XXXII (32), corresponding to 7 AD. |
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| Additional information |
Juba II ruled Mauretania as a client king under Augustus — educated in Rome, friend to the imperial family, and arguably more Greco-Roman intellectual than North African monarch. His coinage from Caesarea reflects that duality: a king minting in Roman denominations for a kingdom Rome needed stable but never quite trusted as sovereign. The year 7 of his reign falls squarely in the early Augustan settlement of the western provinces, when client arrangements like Juba's were actively reinforced after the chaos of the Actium aftermath.
Juba was also the most prolific ancient author on natural history before Pliny — a detail his coins do nothing to advertise.