Lot 4441

Description

Vespasian, (A.D. 69-79), silver denarius, Antioch mint, issue of A.D. 72, (2.95 g), obv. [IMP CAES] VESP AV G P M COS IIII, laureate head to right, rev. Judaea seated to right behind palm tree and the emperor right in military dress with right foot on helmet, holding spear and parazonium, no inscription, (S.2278, RIC 363, Brin 31, BMC 510, RSC 645, H.763 [206]). Short on obverse flan, otherwise extremely fine and very rare.

While technically the war was concluded in A.D. 70, a valiant group of Jews led by Eleazer, son of Jair, held out in the Dead Sea fortress of Masada during the time this coin was minted (in 72-3). There, at the fortress which King Herod had built, with its twenty foot high walls and accompanying thirty eight towers, this heroic band fought against Roman armies and the long siege, never capitulating to the Romans. The surviving Jews committed mass suicide.