|
Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ Sestertius (31.5mm, 27.57 g, 6h). “Travel series” issue (“Provinces cycle”) – Adventus type. Rome mint. Struck circa AD 130-133. HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, laureate and draped bust right / A[DVEN]T VI AVG IVDAEAE •, S C in exergue, Hadrian standing right, raising right hand and holding volumen in left, facing Judaea standing left, holding patera in right hand and acerra in left; at her feet, one small child stands to her left and right; between them, lighted altar; victim (bull) at foot of altar. RIC II.3 1768; Banti 42; Hendin 6635; BMCRE 1659-60. Green patina, pitting, marks, chipping at edge. VF. Rare.
Hadrian made a brief visit to Judaea circa AD 130, during his second great provincial tour of AD 129-132. Prior to his arrival, rumors spread among the Jews that he intended to rebuild Jerusalem and the great Temple, destroyed during the Jewish War of AD 66-73, so he was at first warmly welcomed. However, Hadrian decided to rebuild the city as the Roman veteran colony of Aelia Capitolina, with a temple to Jupiter replacing the one once dedicated to Jehovah. This ultimately sparked the bloody Bar Kokhba Revolt of AD 132-135, which devastated the province and darkened Hadrian’s final years. The rare coinage issued to mark his visit, with the legend ADVENTVI AVG IVDAEA (”the Emperor Enters Judaea”), depicts Hadrian being greeted by a female personification of the province and two children. Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina (referring to the region’s earlier residents, the Philistines) in response to the Bar Kochba conflict, though precisely when this occurred is not known.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 129 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 13-14 May 2025. This lot is in Session Two, which will begin 13 May at 2 PM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
|
