Numismatics in defining nobility

           The tenor of figurative expressions serving to define nobility in Julius Caesar is numismatic, and it slips into view if one correlates normal perceptions about coins--two-sided, with public value,and a mineral constitution contributing to that valuation--with idiosyncratic emphases in the play that use numismatic terms to qualify  and perhaps define character, its surface appearance, and its internal nature . Caesar specifically wants to see the Soothsayer's face (I,1 :18ff) . Caesar talks of my back as opposed to the face of Caesar (II,2 :11-12) . Antony from the Rostra (III,2 :73ff.) remorselessly debases the value of honourable man / men . At IV,1 :19ff., Antony characterises Lepidus as markedly un-Golden Apuleian Ass [an as/assarion has the value of a copper penny]--Lepidus, a triumvir, who for Octavius is a tried and tested soldier : a refined, fusible alloy worthy of soldering two patently less fusible into a triumvirate . The most important contribution of the Lydians to civilisation was the development of coined money in C7 BC, and in our play we find Sardis in Lydia as scenario for a tempering--out of anger to cool resolution--of the Brutus-Cassius compact, the dissension over literal gold running over into the figurative (IV,3 :72-3 and 100-104), with each confessing to be ill-tempered (IV,3 :114-5) . Throughout the play the Character Standard is noble, coextensive with the numismatic Gold Standard, the 'noble' .
         Such character-coin have obverse and reverse, a raised name and title and face profile, publicly marked and current, a persona with a legend, and separate from the private flawed human so represented . That is, numismatics endows res humana with a separate, yet inextricable res divina that outlives the bearer. Caesar, Brutus or Cassius, each manifests infirmity, whether physical (poor vision, deafness), behavioural (arrogance, ill-temper) or psychological (a belief in and sensitivity to omens) . Each of these, each res humana, has conceptualised a separate persona, a third-person res divina that for him represents his quiddity, a public and enduring one--a point reinforced by the contrasting case of the non-politico, Cinna the poet, who similarly is responsive to omens (III,3), whose interrogation by the Plebs specifically concerns his quiddity, but dies because It is no matter , his name's Cinna . These three politicos plus Cinna the poet are marked by a braving of omen and a convergence with the thing portended : in effect, a testing of their mettle / metal . Cinna, the non-politico with no conceptualised separate persona, uncomprehendingly braves the omens, having no will...Yet something leads [the metal, 'lead'] me forth (III,3 :3-4) . The others have a separate persona, and they consciously brave omen to validate that persona . Brutus participates in a sort of destiny-by-location . The dissension with Cassius over money takes place in a Lydia that first coined money. There too he delivers a Philippic fillip just as Octavius and Antony head toward Philippi (IV,3 :168), to where he then advocates advance (IV,3 :201ff.)--fated, as it were . Here we also have Cassius believing partly in the omen of eagles and kites, but he proves resolved To meet all perils constantly (V,1 :78-91) . Caesar is most markedly res divina by the incidence of omens--dream, meteorological, augural, or soothsaid--all of which he defies, to die physically but live in a numinous cognomen . By contrast with Cinna, these three notables consciously embody and bear the stamp of hypostatic union, and die in its service . Antony and Octavius, to whom no omens attach or are attached, survive to power as more rational, effective but mundane res humanae , with Octavius touching Caesar's res divina by legacy and Brutus's res divina by proxy of his, Brutus's, servitors, Messala and Strato . Julius and Brutus are now touchstones to the current Imperial 'Noble', Octavius, who has proved his mettle / metal not in battle--he loses to Brutus's forces (V,3 :51-3)--but in the brief logomachy (V,1 :16-24) with Antony, whence issues a new impression of 'Caesar' as Imperial Standard, with Octavius fashioning his legend--in coin or history--according to his quality .