Silver denarius of M. Junius Brutus

The Ides of March denarius, issued by Marcus Junius Brutus, is one of the most famous and historic coins ever minted. It commemorates the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BCE, an event that later inspired many works of art, literature, opera, and film. Caesar had declared himself "perpetual dictator" at the beginning of that year, thereby directly promoting the assassination plot by Brutus and a group of other senators who feared for the survival of the Republic under his tyrannical rule. Th reverse of the coin bears the inscription naming the day of the murder and also depicts two daggers representing the weapons used to stab Caesar to death, as well as a cap usually worn by enslaved persons in the Roman world who had earned their freedom, symbolizing here the liberation of Rome.