The New York Sale
Auction 40 11 January 2017
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ANCIENT COINS, ROMAN EMPIRE, Titus. Gold Aureus (7.22 g), as Caesar, AD 69-79. Rome, under Vespasian, AD 74. T CAESAR IMP VESP, PONTIF TR POT, Fortuna standing facing, head left on garlanded cippus decorated with rams' heads, holding rudder and cornucopiae. (RIC 696; BN 127; BMC 153; Calicó 751). Boldly struck and well centered. Excellent portrait of Titus. Nearly extremely fine.
Fortuna, the Roman personification of fortune or luck (good or bad), is appropriate for the reverse of this coin since it was really through her that the Flavian family rose to imperial power in the later 1st century AD. She oversaw Vespasian's position of being the last man standing at the end of the civil wars that wracked Rome after the death of Nero, and she also saw that Titus was left to finish the repression of the Jewish Revolt (AD 66-73). The plunder that he carried home from the Jerusalem Temple won him great glory in Rome and paid for the building of the Colosseum. It was also Fortuna who, in the context of the Jewish Revolt, brought passion to Titus in the form of the Herodian queen, Berenice. Unfortunately, the romance between the two was publicly condemned and Titus, unable to bear the pressure, at last sent Berenice away. Yet this simply illustrates the fickleness of Fortuna: while she could give many great and wonderful things, sometimes she would give just so that she could take away again.
Estimate: $ 6,000
Fortuna, the Roman personification of fortune or luck (good or bad), is appropriate for the reverse of this coin since it was really through her that the Flavian family rose to imperial power in the later 1st century AD. She oversaw Vespasian's position of being the last man standing at the end of the civil wars that wracked Rome after the death of Nero, and she also saw that Titus was left to finish the repression of the Jewish Revolt (AD 66-73). The plunder that he carried home from the Jerusalem Temple won him great glory in Rome and paid for the building of the Colosseum. It was also Fortuna who, in the context of the Jewish Revolt, brought passion to Titus in the form of the Herodian queen, Berenice. Unfortunately, the romance between the two was publicly condemned and Titus, unable to bear the pressure, at last sent Berenice away. Yet this simply illustrates the fickleness of Fortuna: while she could give many great and wonderful things, sometimes she would give just so that she could take away again.
Estimate: $ 6,000