Agricola’s Victory in Britain

318, Lot: 644. Estimate $2000. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Titus. AD 79-81. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.10 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck January-June AD 80. IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M, laureate head left / TR P IX IMP XV COS VIII P P, trophy with two captives seated at base. RIC II 101; Calicó 778. Near VF. Very rare.

This aureus commemorates Agricola's victory in Britain at the river Tay, for which Titus was proclaimed imperator for the fifteenth time. Beginning in AD 77, Gnaeus Iulius Agricola, then legate of Britannia, began expanding Roman control over the rest of the island. He pushed northward into Scotland and defeated the Caledonians at Mons Graupius in AD 83. His successes, however, incurred the jealousy of Domitian, who recalled and then exiled him.