The Roman monetary system, like most in history, generally only depicted rulers like kings and emperors, and not lesser officials or the great intellects or writers of the time. A major exception is this extremely rare coin of Cicero, the famed orator and statesman who remains one of the most celebrated figures of Latin prose.
 
Cicero was a so-called novus homo, or “new man” – a derogatory term that indicated he was not from one of Rome’s oldest patrician families. Nevertheless, he was well-educated and became a senator. His most famous triumph came in 63 BC, when the sleazy and ambitious politician Catiline attempted to overthrow the elected government of the Republic by means of a military coup. Cicero, serving as consul at the time, foiled the plot and denounced Catiline in a series of profoundly influential speeches (In Catilinam, or Against Catiline) on the senate floor. His famous opening line, “to what end, Catiline, will you continue to abuse our patience” has become a moderately popular refrain in the genre of political diatribes.
 
But mighty Cicero soon fell from grace, not of his own faults, but through the jealousy of others. His enemies were able to successfully argue that he had exceeded his consular powers in his quashing of Catiline’s conspiracy, even though Cicero and many others believed he had saved the state, and that extraordinary measures were necessary. He spent several years outside of Rome, including a minor stint as a provincial governor in the East (51-50 BC), during which he struck several coins.

Above: The only known cistophorus of Cicero minted at the Laodicea on the Lycus mint, also in Phrygia. Unlike the Apamea issues, which list Cicero’s name as M CICERO, the Laodicea example uses his other surname TVLLIVS.

They generally follow the style of Asia Minor cistophori that we see minted at cities like Ephesus and Pergamum. Even though Cicero was a governor in southeastern Asia Minor (as opposed to western Asia Minor, where most cistophori were struck), the coins circulated widely throughout the region and would have been accepted by locals at the major cities of Cicero’s province of Cilicia. Only a handful of coins are known with his name, with three surviving examples being minted at the Phrygian city of Apameia and one at the city of Laodicea on the Lycus. Above the cista on the reverse, one can make out the faint legend M CICERO PRO COS, referring to his official title of proconsul.

Above: a second Apamea tetradrachm, currently residing in Paris. The design mirrors the traditional cistophori inaugurated by the Attalids in ca. 200 BC, with Cicero’s name clearly displayed on the reverse

Funnily enough, Cicero himself disliked the cistophorus as a denomination. A Roman purist, he would have preferred for denarii, the silver currency of his native Italy, to have circulated in his province. He lamented in a letter to his dear friend Atticus, “I have written to the city quaestors on my brother Quintus’s affairs; take care that they answer, and see what hope there is of obtaining the denarii, otherwise we shall be obliged to content ourselves with Pompey’s cistophori.” Cicero seems to never have received the denarii in question; indeed, denarii never caught on in the East as they did in Italy or the western provinces. Cistophori continued to circulate and were minted in Asia Minor by nearly every emperor until the mid-2nd century AD, with notable quantities being struck by Augustus (r. 27 BC – 14 AD) and Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD)


All coins of Cicero extremely rare, with only one residing in private hands. It was sold in May 2025 for over $55,000. As it is clearly the worst example of the three known Apamea specimens, one can conclude that either the Berlin or Paris examples may fetch three to four times that number, maybe more. It seems to have been truly a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire a coin of Rome’s most famous political orator.