Vespasian, 69-79. As (Copper, 23 mm, 11.40 g, 6 h), Rome, 71. IMP CAES VESAPASIAN AVG COS III Laureate head of Vespasian to left. Rev. VICTORIA NAVALIS / S - C Victory standing right on prow, holding wreath in her right hand and palm frond over left shoulder in her left. BMC 792. CBN -. Cohen 634. Hendin -. RIC 338. Samel -. Shoshana -. Very rare with head to left. Light deposits and with very minor smoothing on the obverse, otherwise, good very fine.



The interpretation of the VICTORIA NAVALIS series has long been debated. Although the Jewish War was fought predominantly on land, Josephus records a notable naval engagement on the Sea of Galilee in 67 CE, following the capture of Tarichaeae. Jewish fugitives took to the lake in small craft, where they were pursued and destroyed by Roman troops sent out by Vespasian. Josephus describes the result in graphic terms: 'one might then see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped' (Jospehus, B.J. 3.529), and explicitly characterizes the encounter as a sea battle.

A connection with the VICTORIA NAVALIS coinage is therefore entirely plausible. Significantly, the type first appeared in 71 CE, the year of Vespasian and Titus’ triumph over Judaea, in which Josephus records that numerous ships formed part of the procession. Yet the imagery may also have evoked the far grander precedent of Augustus at Actium in 31 BCE, exactly a century before the fall of Jerusalem. The type could thus commemorate a genuine Flavian victory on the lake while simultaneously recasting it in the distinctly Augustan language of naval victory and dynastic renewal.