Liberty by Joseph Kleinman

As I write this submission to our newsletter on this 11th day of September 2002, I can’t help but think about the events of last year and what it may mean for us today. However, before I continue I should like to request that nobody reading this believe a word I say. I make that request because most of what I say will be my opinion and mine alone.

What happened last year was an attack upon our Western Civilization. On that day the target for that multiple attack was our financial markets as well as our military establishment and the offices of our representative government. More specifically, it was an attack upon our liberty.

I submit that our prosperity and our freedoms stem from our Greek and Roman heritage and their profound understanding and love of liberty. So much so that wars were often fought to protect it or to secure it.

The coin illustrated is a Roman Republican coin celebrating the conclusion of a war, which they lost. We call that war The Social War. It’s a strange name for a war I think you will agree. The Italian States under Roman Rule fought it for political equality. The Roman Tribune Livius Drusus took up the cause of those states but his murder in 91 BC put an end to their hopes and the war began.

Click on image for a larger version.

The Italians organized themselves into a confederacy called Italia and raised a huge army which inflicted a number of defeats upon The Roman forces. Eventually, the Romans relented and passed the Lex Julia in 90 BC. The provisions of this law granted Roman Citizenship to any free Italian who applied. The coin was struck in 75 BC by the Moneyer, Farsuleius Mensor as a special issue by the consent of the Senate as the SC on the obverse indicates. On the obverse is the female bust of Liberty with a Liberty Cap behind. The reverse shows a Roman Soldier assisting an Italian wearing a Toga into his chariot. The results of that war and the law it established created the possibility for a stronger and greater Rome. That Rome which would become the blueprint for our own American Nation whose coinage proclaims Liberty.