Vitellius, 69. Sestertius (Orichalcum, 36 mm, 25.61 g, 6 h), Rome, circa late April-July 69. A VITELLIVS GERMANICVS IMP AVG P M T R P Laureate and draped bust of Vitellius to right, seen from behind. Rev. VICTORIA AVGVSTI / S - C Victory, naked to waist, standing right, left foot set on helmet, inscribing OB / CIVES / SERV in three lines on shield attached to palm tree. BMC 62-3. Bromberg -. CBN 96 corr. (S C across field, not in exergue). Cohen 105. Hendin -. RIC 123 corr. (shield inscription SERV, not SER). Samel -. Shoshana -. Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue. A beautiful and very well-pedigreed example of this prestigious type, arguably the earliest Roman victory issue relating to the Jewish War and the prototype for the later Flavian Judaea Capta series. Slightly smoothed and with minor traces of corrosion, otherwise, good very fine.



Although the Judaea Capta series is now associated almost exclusively with the Flavians, the earliest coins that very probably allude to the impending Roman victory in the Jewish War were issued under Vespasian’s short-lived predecessor and later civil-war rival, Vitellius. Vitellius had been proclaimed emperor by the German legions in early January 69 CE and, after Otho’s seizure of power, defeated his forces in April of the same year. Meanwhile, the Roman armies under Vespasian in Judaea had steadily pushed back the rebels after the initial setbacks of the war. Following the interruption caused by Nero’s death and the political upheavals of 68, Vespasian resumed operations in the spring of 69 CE and brought most of Judaea back under Roman control. Only Jerusalem and the strongholds of Masada, Machaerus, and Herodium remained in rebel hands.

It was against this background that Vitellius issued a remarkable coin type at Rome. The reverse shows Victory inscribing a shield attached to a palm tree with the words OB CIVES SERV(atos), 'for saving the citizens,' while the surrounding legend VICTORIA AVGVSTI, 'Victory of the Augustus,' explicitly attributes the success to the emperor. The palm tree very probably refers here to the war in Judaea. Although the palm was not exclusively a symbol of the province, its appearance in this particular political and military context, together with the subsequent adoption of closely related imagery under Vespasian, strongly favours a Judaean interpretation.

Vitellius’ appropriation of a victory won, or about to be won, by Vespasian’s forces was entirely consistent with Roman imperial ideology. Military victories were ultimately credited to the emperor under whose auspices they had been achieved, regardless of the general who commanded in the field. In the extraordinary circumstances of 69 CE, however, the message carried an additional political charge. By presenting the expected victory in Judaea as VICTORIA AVGVSTI, Vitellius was not merely claiming the success for himself; he was also implicitly presenting Vespasian, commander of the eastern armies, as a loyal servant of his regime.

The irony is striking. Only two months later, Vespasian emerged as Vitellius’ most dangerous rival. On 1 July 69 CE the troops in Egypt swore allegiance to Vespasian as emperor, and within days the legions in Judaea and other forces in the East followed. The commander whose victories Vitellius had sought to incorporate into his own imperial image had become his opponent in a new civil war. In October, Flavian forces under Marcus Antonius Primus defeated the Vitellian army at the Second Battle of Bedriacum, and by late December Rome had fallen and Vitellius was dead.

Equally significant is what happened to the coin type itself. The imagery did not disappear with Vitellius. Under Vespasian, the combination of Victory, palm tree, and shield was taken up again and placed within an unmistakably Judaean context. A visual language that Vitellius had used to anticipate and appropriate the expected Roman success in the East was thus adopted by Vespasian and transformed into the propaganda of the man whose armies had actually brought the war to its conclusion. The motif became part of the broader visual repertoire from which the extensive Judaea Capta coinage developed.

The Vitellian issues can therefore be regarded, with a high degree of probability, as the immediate precursors of the later Judaea Capta series. If, as the context strongly suggests, the reverse type refers to the anticipated Roman victory in Judaea, the coins were probably struck during the brief interval between Vitellius’ establishment at Rome in the spring of 69 CE and the news of Vespasian’s proclamation in the summer of that year. Once Vespasian had openly become his rival, it is difficult to imagine Vitellius continuing to issue a type that drew its meaning from the military successes of his new civil-war opponent. Such a short period of production would also help to explain the considerable rarity of these coins.

Paradoxically, then, the origins of the coinage we now associate so closely with the Flavians may lie in an issue of their opponent Vitellius – whose imagery Vespasian would soon adopt and transform into a central element of Flavian victory propaganda.