Roman Empire

Vespasian, Emperor AD 69-79

RIC 840; BN -; BMC 176; Calicó 622, Mint State

Rome, AD 76. IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG, laureate head of Vespasian right. Reverse: COS VII, heifer standing right.

Ex Maison Palombo 17 (20 October 2018), 53; NAC 54 (24 March 2010), 369; “European Nobleman” [C. Sveaas] Collection (NAC 24, 5 December 2002), 249; Gilbert Steinberg Collection (NAC/Spink Tasei, 16 November 1994), 298; Boscoreale Hoard (1894-1895)

Ti. Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian) rose to prominence as the commander appointed by Nero to repress the Great Jewish Revolt that broke out in Judaea in AD 66. By AD 68, he had pacified almost all of Judaea, except for Jerusalem. After the suicide of Nero, Vespasian was proclaimed Emperor by the army at Alexandria and turned his attention to reaching Rome and defeating the rival Emperor Aulus Vitellius, leaving the Jewish War to be completed by his son Titus. With the death of Vitellius, Vespasian reigned as sole emperor and the bloody Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69) was brought to an end. In the following year, Vespasian celebrated a great triumph alongside Titus for victory over the Jewish rebels. Vespasian reigned for only a decade more, spending most of it building up the legitimacy of his new Flavian dynasty.