110 / 120
231
Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Æ Small Bronze (4.87 g), 132-135 CE. Undated, attributed to year 3 (134/5
CE). ‘Simon’ (Paleo-Hebrew), seven-branched palm tree with two bunches of dates. Rev. ‘For the freedom
of Jerusalem’ (Paleo-Hebrew), bunch of grapes with branch and small leaf. Cf. (Mildenberg 158 (O4/R-;
rev. die not recorded); TJC 302b; Hendin 1440. Very bold with a pleasing green patina.
Extremely fine.
$ 400
Purchased privately, January 1988.
JUDEA CAPTA COINS OF ROME
Marvelous Vespasian Judaea Capta Gold Aureus - Ex Hunt Collection
232
Vespasian. Gold Aureus (7.26 g), AD 69-79. Judaea Capta type. Rome, AD 69/70. IMP CAESAR
VESPASIANVS AVG, laureate head of Vespasian right. Rev. IVDAEA in exergue, Jewess seated right, head
resting on hand in attitude of mourning; behind, trophy. (RIC 1; Hendin 1464; BN 20-2; BMC 31-4;
Calicó 643). Boldly struck and perfectly centered. Extremely fine.
$ 60,000
ex Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection (Sotheby’s, 21-22 June 1990), lot 699.
First coin of the standard ‘Judaea Capta’ series. In the ‘Judaea Capta’ coinage, the seated personified Judaea evokes the iconographic
language of the defeated and degraded prisoner. The conquered province type has its own set of gestures expressing a mournful or
abject context, which are derived from Roman funerary iconography. They include an attitude formed by the resting of the chin
in the hand, a pose that evokes pensiveness, uncertainty, and grief with overtones of repentance or lamentation. Additionally, the
mourner is shown with hunched shoulders, and a bowed and covered head. The depiction of the personified province recollects the
Biblical description of the besieged Jerusalem by the prophet Isaiah (ca. 700 BCE): “For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen…
Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she, being desolate, shall sit
upon the ground” (Isaiah 3:8-9; 25-26).The imposing military trophy standing to the left of the picture looms over the back of the
vanquished Judaea, taunting the humiliated figure, re-enforcing the fact that the weapons used to resist Rome are now spoils to the
victors; they no longer hold power.