Scipio and Cato in, 47-46: Ideals and expectations through coins

Résumé En

After the defeat of Pharsalus, Pompey’s imperator Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio fled to Africa. There he was reached by Marcus Porcius Cato and together they organized a resistance against Caesar. Metellus took the control of the troops, while Cato stood in Utica and supervised the supply for the army (Plut., Vit. Cat. Min., LVIII, 3). Both of them killed themselves after the defeat in the battle of Thapsus (46 B. C.). The ideals and the ambitions of these two eminent and so different personalities are well reflected in their coinages1, which show not only a strong attention to the interests of the Republican faction, but also to the sensitiveness of the African ally, Juba I, king of Numidia. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the two different ways they used coins: their “messages in metal” divulged their ideas, interlacing personal desires and expectations with the ideals of the Pompeian faction. On the other side, the relationships with the African ally emerges from certain iconographic and stylistic elements (e.g. the adoption of some characteristic types of the Numidian coinage). These connections induce the choice of specific numismatic types, melt together in a “provincial language” which will be examined in light of epigraphical and literary evidences.