Gorny & Mosch
Auction 265 14-15 Oct 2019
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RÖMISCHE KAISERZEIT. Vespasian, 69 - 79 n. Chr. Aureus (6,98g). 72 n. Chr. Mzst. Lugdunum. Vs.: IMP CAES VESPAS AVG P M TR P IIII P P COS IIII, Kopf mit Lorbeerkranz n. r. Rs.: DE IVDAEIS, Tropaeum. RIC 1179; C. 139 BMC 402; BN 305; Calicó I, 627c.
Gold. R! s-ss
Ex collection Shlomo Moussaieff, London. Erworben zwischen 1948 und den 1980er Jahren.
This gold aureus belongs to the vast coin series struck to celebrate the victory of Vespasian (and his son Titus) in the First Jewish Revolt, a bloody conflict that rocked the eastern territories of the Roman Empire between AD 66 and 73. The trophy type on the reverse of the present coin, with the simple statement, DE IVDAEIS ("From the Judaeans") serves as shorthand for the vast booty that was taken from Jerusalem and especially from the Temple. The historian Josephus reports that the quantities of gold, ivory, jewelry, and purple cloth in Vespasian's triumph that the procession resembled "a running river of wealth." The emperor subsequently tapped this river to cover the expenses of a grand new project to reshape Rome itself. He ordered an artificial lake belonging to the palace complex of the dead and disgraced Nero to be drained and used as the foundation for an enormous amphitheater. It was officially described as the Flavian Amphitheater, but came to be known as the Colosseum after its location near a colossal statue of Nero in the guise of the sun god. This aureus and other gold coins produced in the context of Vespasian's triumph very well may have been struck from the gold objects carried off from conquered Judaea. And some were struck in order to pay for the construction of the Colosseum, which in its own somewhat sinister way was also DE IVDAEIS.
Gold. R! s-ss
Ex collection Shlomo Moussaieff, London. Erworben zwischen 1948 und den 1980er Jahren.
This gold aureus belongs to the vast coin series struck to celebrate the victory of Vespasian (and his son Titus) in the First Jewish Revolt, a bloody conflict that rocked the eastern territories of the Roman Empire between AD 66 and 73. The trophy type on the reverse of the present coin, with the simple statement, DE IVDAEIS ("From the Judaeans") serves as shorthand for the vast booty that was taken from Jerusalem and especially from the Temple. The historian Josephus reports that the quantities of gold, ivory, jewelry, and purple cloth in Vespasian's triumph that the procession resembled "a running river of wealth." The emperor subsequently tapped this river to cover the expenses of a grand new project to reshape Rome itself. He ordered an artificial lake belonging to the palace complex of the dead and disgraced Nero to be drained and used as the foundation for an enormous amphitheater. It was officially described as the Flavian Amphitheater, but came to be known as the Colosseum after its location near a colossal statue of Nero in the guise of the sun god. This aureus and other gold coins produced in the context of Vespasian's triumph very well may have been struck from the gold objects carried off from conquered Judaea. And some were struck in order to pay for the construction of the Colosseum, which in its own somewhat sinister way was also DE IVDAEIS.