Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 125 23-24 Jun 2021
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Ephesus. Vespasian augustus, 69 - 79.
Denarius 70, AR 3.23 g. IMP CAESAR VESPAS AVG COS II TR P P P Laureate bust of Vespasian r. Rev. LIBERI IMP – AVG VESPAS Confronted busts of Titus, r., and Domitian, l. ; in l. field, Φ. C 1. BMC p. 92, note. RIC 1410. CBN –. RPC 816.
Extremely rare and probably the finest specimen known. Struck on an exceptionally
broad flan and with three very expressive portraits of Eastern craftsmanship.
Lightly toned and good extremely fine
Ex NAC sale 27, 2004, 349.
Vespasian was keenly aware that he had risen to power through force of arms instead of by lineage or constitutional means. As such he constantly looked for means to legitimate his Flavian dynasty by appealing to the past. In this way he could cast himself and his sons not as the military usurpers that they were, but rather as reflections of the Roman past, prior to the disastrous reign of Nero and the civil war that followed his suicide. Interestingly, this extremely rare denarius takes its iconographic cues from Sicilian issues struck by Sextus Pompey during his conflict with Octavian and the Second Triumvirate in c. 42 BC (Crawford 511). Sextus' coins depict the head of Sextus Pompey on the obverse and the confronted heads of his deceased father, Pompey the Great, and his brother Gnaeus Pompey on the reverse. Vespasian's issue follows this same format, but places the head of the Emperor on the obverse and the confronted heads of Titus and Domitian on the reverse. Notably, the engraver has played such close attention to the Pompeian model that one of Vespasian's sons (Domitian?) on the reverse is depicted with a stubbly beard like that sported by Gnaeus Pompey. Although Sextus Pompey was dead by the time the Principate was established by Augustus, it is easy to understand how the Pompeian legacy might have had a special appeal for Vespasian. Pompey the Great was renowned as one of the greatest generals of the late Republic and had imposed a Roman settlement on the Near East that created the Roman province of Syria (under whose jurisdiction Judaea fell during the Jewish War). All of this sounded suspiciously like Vespasian, who had outmaneuvered Vitellius and the Jewish rebels and reorganized the administrative structures of the Roman Near East. He was no usurping imperial upstart, but the return of the glorious past.
Denarius 70, AR 3.23 g. IMP CAESAR VESPAS AVG COS II TR P P P Laureate bust of Vespasian r. Rev. LIBERI IMP – AVG VESPAS Confronted busts of Titus, r., and Domitian, l. ; in l. field, Φ. C 1. BMC p. 92, note. RIC 1410. CBN –. RPC 816.
Extremely rare and probably the finest specimen known. Struck on an exceptionally
broad flan and with three very expressive portraits of Eastern craftsmanship.
Lightly toned and good extremely fine
Ex NAC sale 27, 2004, 349.
Vespasian was keenly aware that he had risen to power through force of arms instead of by lineage or constitutional means. As such he constantly looked for means to legitimate his Flavian dynasty by appealing to the past. In this way he could cast himself and his sons not as the military usurpers that they were, but rather as reflections of the Roman past, prior to the disastrous reign of Nero and the civil war that followed his suicide. Interestingly, this extremely rare denarius takes its iconographic cues from Sicilian issues struck by Sextus Pompey during his conflict with Octavian and the Second Triumvirate in c. 42 BC (Crawford 511). Sextus' coins depict the head of Sextus Pompey on the obverse and the confronted heads of his deceased father, Pompey the Great, and his brother Gnaeus Pompey on the reverse. Vespasian's issue follows this same format, but places the head of the Emperor on the obverse and the confronted heads of Titus and Domitian on the reverse. Notably, the engraver has played such close attention to the Pompeian model that one of Vespasian's sons (Domitian?) on the reverse is depicted with a stubbly beard like that sported by Gnaeus Pompey. Although Sextus Pompey was dead by the time the Principate was established by Augustus, it is easy to understand how the Pompeian legacy might have had a special appeal for Vespasian. Pompey the Great was renowned as one of the greatest generals of the late Republic and had imposed a Roman settlement on the Near East that created the Roman province of Syria (under whose jurisdiction Judaea fell during the Jewish War). All of this sounded suspiciously like Vespasian, who had outmaneuvered Vitellius and the Jewish rebels and reorganized the administrative structures of the Roman Near East. He was no usurping imperial upstart, but the return of the glorious past.