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Lot
# 441 - Auction is closed.Estimate: US$70000
/ Unsold
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Titus. Sestertius
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Titus. 79-81 AD. Sestertius, 22.79g. Rome, 80-81 AD. Obv: Colosseum seen from front and above between obelisk on base (Meta Sudans) and porticoed building of two stories (Baths of Titus), without legend. Rx: IMP T CAES VESP AVG P M TR P P P COS VIII S - C Titus seated l. holding branch and roll on curule chair set on globe among arms. BM 190 pl. 50.2 (same rev. die). Paris 189 pl. LXXXI (same dies). RIC 184 (R2). Cohen 400 (80 Fr.). The facade of the Colosseum is virtually complete, even showing a tiny quadriga in the central arch as well as a great many people within the Colosseum. This coin is a wonderful example of the most iconic symbol of the Roman empire. David Hendin has recently noted that the Colosseum had a strong relationship to the Jewish war: not only was its construction financed by booty from that war, but its sculptural decoration commemorated the Jewish victory: a palm tree with a Jewess can be seen in the central arches above the triumphal quadriga on well preserved specimens of the Colosseum sestertius. Bold VF.
See N.T. Elkins, The Flavian Colosseum Sestertii, Numismatic Chronicle 166, 2006, p. 216, 7 (our dies). This is the obverse die that continued to be used after Titus' death to strike Colosseum sestertii for Divus Titus, Elkins, 8-9. To prove the popular nature of Vepasian's rule, the Colosseum was built on the site that had been recently occupied by Nero's Golden Palace. The reverse type of Titus seated as master of the world (his curule chair set on globe), bringing peace (olive branch) by means of victory over enemies (captured arms), fits well with the recently discovered dedicatory inscription of the Colosseum, stating that the emperors constructed it "from booty" (ex manubis), doubtless chiefly the booty of the Jewish War.
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