Coins of the best-known Roman revolutionary era allow rival pretenders to speak to us directly. After the deaths of Caesar and Cicero (in 44 and 43BC) hardly one word has been reliably transmitted to us from even the two most powerful opponents of Octavian: Mark Antony and Sextus Pompeius - except through coinage and the occasional inscription. The coins are an antidote to a widespread fault in modern approaches: the idea, from hindsight, that the Roman Republic was doomed, that the rise of Octavian-Augustus to monarchy was inevitable, and that contemporaries might have sensed as much.

In this book eleven new essays explore the coinage of Rome's competing dynasts. Julius Caesar's coins, and those of his 'son' Octavian-Augustus, are studied. But similar and respectful attention is given to the issues of their opponents: Cato the Younger and Q. Metellus Scipio, Mark Antony and Sextus Pompeius, Q. Cornificius and others. A shared aim is to understand mentalities, the forecasts current, in an age of rare insecurity as the superpower of the Mediterranean faced, and slowly recovered from, division and ruin.

Anton Powell has written, and edited, extensively on the history of Sparta, Athens - and the literature of the Roman Revolution. His monograph Virgil the Partisan (CPW, 2008) was awarded the prize of the American Vergilian Society for 'the book that makes the greatest contribution toward our understanding and appreciation of Vergil'. He has twice been Invited Professor at the Ecole Normale Sup�rieure in Paris, in 2006 for Greek history and in 2008 for Latin literature. Anton Powell died in 2020 and this was one of the last books that he edited.

Andrew Burnett CBE FBA is honorary professor of University College London and the President of the Royal Numismatic Society, UK. He was Deputy Director of the British Museum from 2002 to 2013, President of the Roman Society (2008-2012) and of the International Numismatic Commission (1997-2003). He is one of the founding editors of the international series, Roman Provincial Coinage.