Description

Denarius of Gaius Marius Capito of the Maria family, a coin struck in 81 BC. Bust of Ceres on the obverse and a farmer driving a pair of oxen on the reverse.

Gaius Marius Capito was a monetary magistrate (triumvir monetalis) of the late Roman Republic, active in 81 BC, in a political context marked by the dictatorship of Sulla and the bloody aftermath of the civil wars.

A member of the gens Maria, he bore a name that evoked the prestige of Gaius Marius, the great general and rival of Sulla, although his exact familial relationship to him remains uncertain. At a time when family display on coinage was becoming a political tool, Capito used his issues to assert the antiquity and respectability of his lineage.