DOI article:
Ostrowski, Janusz A.: Personifications of Judaea on Flavian coins
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21230#0154
ticular way to legitimate the authority of the new emperor. Masada held
out until April 15, 73, but this did not restrain Vespasian and Titus from
making the official claim that Judaea had been conquered.
For this purpose, the emperor and his elder son together began
a very carefully conceived propaganda campaign, the goal of which was
to make the people of Rome aware of the fact that the new authorities
had achieved an important military success, and also on the fact that,
thanks to his success, peace once again prevailed in the Roman Empire,
as it had in the days of Augustus.2
The Flavian emperors reached for the surest instrument of political
propaganda: coins, which in thousands of copies made their way to every
corner of the expansive Empire. To an extent hitherto unexampled in
Rome's history, this military victory bore fruit in an enormous number of
representations on coins.3 What is more, the image types created at that
attic. It presents other fragments of the triumphal paradę, including a scenę unexampled in
Roman art., of a sculpture personifying the Jordan being carried on a ferculum. Josephus
(loc.cit.) writes that images of rivers were carried in the procession. Cf. M. Pfanner, Der
Titusbogen, Mainz 1983, p. 84, PI. 86, 4-7; J. A. Ostrowski, Personifications ofRwers in Greek and
Roman Art, Cracow 1991, p. 50, figs. 49-49a. It is worth mentioning certain other equally
famous reliefs, those from the tomb of Haterius, indirectly connected with the triumph.
These reliefs depict various Roman buildings, including the Arcus ad Isis s\a.ndmg next to the
shrine of Isis on the Via Labicana, where, as we are told by Josephus {BelLIud. VII.5.4.),
Vespasian and Titus spent the night before their triumph. On the relief the sculptures on
the attic of the arch are clearly visible: a palm, under which is a captive, and thus a motif
familiar from Flavian Coins. Cf. Ostrowski, p. 180, s.v. IUDAEA, no. 19.
2 The building of the large Templum Pacis complex (the Forum of Vespasian), conse-
crated in 75, was intended to ser\7e as a reminder that peace again prevailed in the Roman
Empire. There is no good reason not to compare this complex with the complex in which
the Ara Pacis was located, erected by Augustus on the Campus Martius.
1 If writing on coins it should certainly be noted that the first personification of Judaea
was placed on a coin (semis) emitted in 37 B.C. by C. Sosius, with the legend on the reverse
reading C.SOSIVS IMP. (cf.BMCRR II, p. 508, no. 46; RCC II, p. 63, no. 152; Toynbee, p. 117,
PI. XVI, 16; Ostrowski, p. 178, s.v. IUDAEA, no. 1). It depicts two captives sitting under
a trophaeum: a woman dressed in a long gown, her head hanging down, and a man with his
arms tied behind his back. Sosius, who accompanied Marc Antony as ąuaestor in his Eastern
expedition, became governor of Syria and Cilicia in 38 B.C, and on October 3, 37 B.C,
conąueredjerusalem, on which occasion he was hailed imperator by his army. It is generally
thought that the woman on the coin in ąuestion is a personification of Judaea, while the
man is the Jewish king Antigonos Mattathias, whom Marc Antony put to death. In 33 B.C. in
Rome, C. Sosius rebuilt the tempie of Apollo known as the "Apollo Sosianus". On the frieze
from this tempie, which has been preserved in fragments, there is a scenę from a triumphal
paradę. Two youths are lifting a ferculum, on which two captives are sitting under a tropha-
154
out until April 15, 73, but this did not restrain Vespasian and Titus from
making the official claim that Judaea had been conquered.
For this purpose, the emperor and his elder son together began
a very carefully conceived propaganda campaign, the goal of which was
to make the people of Rome aware of the fact that the new authorities
had achieved an important military success, and also on the fact that,
thanks to his success, peace once again prevailed in the Roman Empire,
as it had in the days of Augustus.2
The Flavian emperors reached for the surest instrument of political
propaganda: coins, which in thousands of copies made their way to every
corner of the expansive Empire. To an extent hitherto unexampled in
Rome's history, this military victory bore fruit in an enormous number of
representations on coins.3 What is more, the image types created at that
attic. It presents other fragments of the triumphal paradę, including a scenę unexampled in
Roman art., of a sculpture personifying the Jordan being carried on a ferculum. Josephus
(loc.cit.) writes that images of rivers were carried in the procession. Cf. M. Pfanner, Der
Titusbogen, Mainz 1983, p. 84, PI. 86, 4-7; J. A. Ostrowski, Personifications ofRwers in Greek and
Roman Art, Cracow 1991, p. 50, figs. 49-49a. It is worth mentioning certain other equally
famous reliefs, those from the tomb of Haterius, indirectly connected with the triumph.
These reliefs depict various Roman buildings, including the Arcus ad Isis s\a.ndmg next to the
shrine of Isis on the Via Labicana, where, as we are told by Josephus {BelLIud. VII.5.4.),
Vespasian and Titus spent the night before their triumph. On the relief the sculptures on
the attic of the arch are clearly visible: a palm, under which is a captive, and thus a motif
familiar from Flavian Coins. Cf. Ostrowski, p. 180, s.v. IUDAEA, no. 19.
2 The building of the large Templum Pacis complex (the Forum of Vespasian), conse-
crated in 75, was intended to ser\7e as a reminder that peace again prevailed in the Roman
Empire. There is no good reason not to compare this complex with the complex in which
the Ara Pacis was located, erected by Augustus on the Campus Martius.
1 If writing on coins it should certainly be noted that the first personification of Judaea
was placed on a coin (semis) emitted in 37 B.C. by C. Sosius, with the legend on the reverse
reading C.SOSIVS IMP. (cf.BMCRR II, p. 508, no. 46; RCC II, p. 63, no. 152; Toynbee, p. 117,
PI. XVI, 16; Ostrowski, p. 178, s.v. IUDAEA, no. 1). It depicts two captives sitting under
a trophaeum: a woman dressed in a long gown, her head hanging down, and a man with his
arms tied behind his back. Sosius, who accompanied Marc Antony as ąuaestor in his Eastern
expedition, became governor of Syria and Cilicia in 38 B.C, and on October 3, 37 B.C,
conąueredjerusalem, on which occasion he was hailed imperator by his army. It is generally
thought that the woman on the coin in ąuestion is a personification of Judaea, while the
man is the Jewish king Antigonos Mattathias, whom Marc Antony put to death. In 33 B.C. in
Rome, C. Sosius rebuilt the tempie of Apollo known as the "Apollo Sosianus". On the frieze
from this tempie, which has been preserved in fragments, there is a scenę from a triumphal
paradę. Two youths are lifting a ferculum, on which two captives are sitting under a tropha-
154