Vespasian, 69-79. Sestertius (Orichalcum, 35 mm, 25.04 g, 6 h), Rome, 71. IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M TR P P P COS III Laureate head of Vespasian to right. Rev. IVDEA CAPTA / S C Palm tree with two bunches of dates; to left, Vespasian standing right in military attire, resting his left foot on cuirass, holding spear in his right hand and parazonium in his left; to right, Judaea, draped and veiled, seated right on helmet in attitude of mourning, resting her head on her left hand. BMC -. Bromberg -. CBN -. Cohen -. Hendin 6534a. RIC 168 note. Samel -. Shoshana -. Very rare. Slightly rough and with minor traces of corrosion on the reverse, otherwise, about extremely fine.



The spelling IVDEA, which occurs on several dies and types alongside the more conventional IVDAEA, is not an engraver’s error, but rather a contemporary orthographic variant. The omission of A probably reflects the monophthongisation of Latin ae to e, a development already well advanced in spoken Latin by the early Imperial period, so that IVDAEA and IVDEA may in practice have represented much the same pronunciation. Their simultaneous use at the Roman mint thus offers a rare numismatic glimpse of the growing divergence between traditional spelling and contemporary speech.

Such variations are not unique to the Judaea Capta coinage. Comparable, though linguistically different, forms occur elsewhere in the Imperial series, including CONSACRATIO for CONSECRATIO on third-century antoniniani struck at Cologne, and the occasional use of KARVS and KARINVS for CARVS and CARINVS at Ticinum in the early 280s. In the latter cases the differences are primarily orthographic, whereas IVDEA is particularly interesting because its spelling probably reflects an actual change in pronunciation.