DOI article:
Ostrowski, Janusz A.: Personifications of Judaea on Flavian coins
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21230#0158
Sometimes this woman has her hands tied behind her back or in
front. This is of course a typical image of the captive, already in use in
the days of predynastic Egypt,0 and occuring with ever greater freąuency
in Roman iconography, beginning with the Flavians.7 The striking thing
is that this motif is used here for the firśt time in history with a woman
figurę. She depicts metonymically the entire defeated people, and is
thus simultaneously a personification of the pacified country. The place-
ment of a woman under symbols of victory - a trophaeum or a palm
(at once a symbol of Judaea as well) - is completely unambiguous.
The scenes listed under Type II are also played out under a palm or
a trophaeum. They are supplemented by the figurę of Victory or the
emperor. Victory is either coronating with a trophaeum, affirming in
some way that a victory has been won, or she is writing on a shield hung
on the palm. Victory holding a shield in her outstreched arms and writ-
ing on it is an innovation of sorts introduced by Flavian art.8
6 In addition to the images of actual captives, a large role was certainly played by
Apelles' famous panting of War with its hand tied behind its back, located by Augustus on
his forum and constantly admired. Pliny the Elder writes about this work, N.H. XXXV 93.
' It is worth mentioning at this point that on the statua loricata of Vespasian found in
Sabratha and preserved in the museum there, the armor is decorated with a palm located
in the center. On one side stands Victory, writing on a shield suspended from the tree; on
the other, a captive with his arms tied behind his back. Below this group, a woman dressed
in a cloak and trousers is sitting on a heap of shields. On the center pteryx of the armor,
against a backgronnd of mountainous landscape, there is an eagle dropping a snake. This is
a double personification of Judaea: in the form of both the captive and the woman sitting
on the shields (this last representation being without parallel in the numismatic materiał).
The scenę with the eagle and the snake is known as early as the Iliad (XII. 200ff) as a symbol
of victory sent by Zeus (identical to the imagery on Elis coins from 471-421 B.C.), a victory
which the Romans won in mountainous Judaea. Cf. C. C. Vermeule, Hellenistic and Roman
Cuirassed Statues, I, Berytus 13, 1959/60, no. 95, PI. 8, 25; H. C. Niemeyer, Studien zur statuari-
schen Darstellung der rómischen Kaiser, Berlin 1968; K. Stemmer, Untersuchungen zur Typologie,
Chronologie und Ikonographie der Panzerstatuen, Berlin 1978, no. V, 10, PI. 38, 1-2; Ostrowski,
p. 180, sa'. IUDAEA, 17, and p. 182.
s The prototype was probably the statuę of Victory discovered in Brescia (the so-called
"Victory of Brescia"), 1.95 meters high, adorning the city's Capitolium, erected by Vespa-
sian in 72. The arrangement of the goddess's hands indicates that she was writing something
on a shield she was holding. As late as the time of Constantine the Great, this figurę was ma-
ny times imitated, including on Trajan's Column, where it stands as a sort of punctuation
mark between scenes illustrating the First and Second Dacian Wars. Domitian used it on
his earliest coins with personifications of Germania (RIC II, p. 186, no. 255; p. 190, no. 282
a-b; p. 194, no. 315). Cf. T. Hólscher, Die Victońa von Brescia, Antike Plastik 10 (1970), pp.
67-80.
158
front. This is of course a typical image of the captive, already in use in
the days of predynastic Egypt,0 and occuring with ever greater freąuency
in Roman iconography, beginning with the Flavians.7 The striking thing
is that this motif is used here for the firśt time in history with a woman
figurę. She depicts metonymically the entire defeated people, and is
thus simultaneously a personification of the pacified country. The place-
ment of a woman under symbols of victory - a trophaeum or a palm
(at once a symbol of Judaea as well) - is completely unambiguous.
The scenes listed under Type II are also played out under a palm or
a trophaeum. They are supplemented by the figurę of Victory or the
emperor. Victory is either coronating with a trophaeum, affirming in
some way that a victory has been won, or she is writing on a shield hung
on the palm. Victory holding a shield in her outstreched arms and writ-
ing on it is an innovation of sorts introduced by Flavian art.8
6 In addition to the images of actual captives, a large role was certainly played by
Apelles' famous panting of War with its hand tied behind its back, located by Augustus on
his forum and constantly admired. Pliny the Elder writes about this work, N.H. XXXV 93.
' It is worth mentioning at this point that on the statua loricata of Vespasian found in
Sabratha and preserved in the museum there, the armor is decorated with a palm located
in the center. On one side stands Victory, writing on a shield suspended from the tree; on
the other, a captive with his arms tied behind his back. Below this group, a woman dressed
in a cloak and trousers is sitting on a heap of shields. On the center pteryx of the armor,
against a backgronnd of mountainous landscape, there is an eagle dropping a snake. This is
a double personification of Judaea: in the form of both the captive and the woman sitting
on the shields (this last representation being without parallel in the numismatic materiał).
The scenę with the eagle and the snake is known as early as the Iliad (XII. 200ff) as a symbol
of victory sent by Zeus (identical to the imagery on Elis coins from 471-421 B.C.), a victory
which the Romans won in mountainous Judaea. Cf. C. C. Vermeule, Hellenistic and Roman
Cuirassed Statues, I, Berytus 13, 1959/60, no. 95, PI. 8, 25; H. C. Niemeyer, Studien zur statuari-
schen Darstellung der rómischen Kaiser, Berlin 1968; K. Stemmer, Untersuchungen zur Typologie,
Chronologie und Ikonographie der Panzerstatuen, Berlin 1978, no. V, 10, PI. 38, 1-2; Ostrowski,
p. 180, sa'. IUDAEA, 17, and p. 182.
s The prototype was probably the statuę of Victory discovered in Brescia (the so-called
"Victory of Brescia"), 1.95 meters high, adorning the city's Capitolium, erected by Vespa-
sian in 72. The arrangement of the goddess's hands indicates that she was writing something
on a shield she was holding. As late as the time of Constantine the Great, this figurę was ma-
ny times imitated, including on Trajan's Column, where it stands as a sort of punctuation
mark between scenes illustrating the First and Second Dacian Wars. Domitian used it on
his earliest coins with personifications of Germania (RIC II, p. 186, no. 255; p. 190, no. 282
a-b; p. 194, no. 315). Cf. T. Hólscher, Die Victońa von Brescia, Antike Plastik 10 (1970), pp.
67-80.
158