Regini & Atrebates Commios c. 50-25 BC Commios Muzzles Gold Stater *Rare*

Regini & Atrebates Commios c. 50-25 BC Commios Muzzles Gold Stater

Wreath design with 2 hidden faces/Horse right, wheel below, charioteers arm and 3 horses muzzles above

Rare

ABC 1022; 17mm

Provenance

CCI 21.0693

 

Commios (c. 50/30 BC–?)

In his account of the Gallic War, Caesar describes how he had appointed a man called Commius to be king over the Atrebates in Gaul, before sending him to Britain as an envoy to treat with the British tribes. Other information from both Caesar and related sources paints a treacherous picture, with Commius supposedly turning rebel and throwing his lot in with Vercingetorix during the Gallic rebellion. Fleeing to Britain after Caesar’s victory at Alesia, he apparently ruled there for the rest of his life. Because the earliest inscribed British staters of the Atrebates name an individual named ‘Commios’, it has become accepted in popular history that these are the same individuals – though it is highly unlikely that this is the case. We can attribute this conflation to the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who felt that a concentration of Commius staters in Atrebatic territory was sufficient evidence in this regard. Simon Bean has re-dated the British gold staters inscribed ‘Commios’ to around 30 BC, which seems rather late to be the same Commius whom Caesar first sent to Britain in the 50s BC.