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Domitian was the younger son of the emperor
Vespasian.
Although his older brother Titus occupied the
throne from A.D.
79 to 81, while Domitian was growing up, he was
not given any
real political power. Because of this, Domitian
always felt a
certain amount of resentment towards his elder
brother,
spurring the rumors that Domitian poisoned
Titus, although
these are generally believed to be false. Like
Tiberius and
Caligula before him, Domitian sought to be
absolute ruler. He
scandalized the Senate and the rest of the Roman
aristocracy by
having statues of himself erected and by insisting
that people
refer to him as "Lord and God.” The Senate grew
to loathe and
fear Domitian, hatching numerous plots against
his life, and he,
in turn, became increasingly suspicious towards
them. In the
last three or four years of Domitian’s reign, the
senators lived
in fear of their lives, reaping the fruit of their
conspiracies. In
the end, it would be this backstabbing and
mistrust on both
sides that would doom Domitian. In 95, he
eliminated his two
praetorian prefects. The two men who replaced
them, Petronius
Secundus and Norbanus, fearing that they too
would soon be
eliminated, decided to form a successful
conspiracy to
assassinate Domitian.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or purse?
What eras and lands have the coin traversed on
its journey into
our possession? As we reach into our pockets to
pull out some
change, we rarely hesitate to think of who might
have touched
the coin before us, or where the coin will venture
to after it
leaves our hands. More than money, coins are a
symbol of the
state that struck them, of a specific time and
location, whether
active currencies in the age we live or artifacts of
a long
forgotten empire. This stunning hand-struck
coin reveals an
expertise of craftsmanship and intricate
sculptural detail that is
often lacking in contemporary machine- made
currencies. This
coin commemorates Rome’s victory against the
Jewish
rebellion. While Rome’s occupation of the Holy
Land was short-
lived, artifacts like this coin live one: concrete
remnants of
ancient empires passed from the hands of
civilization to
civilization, from generation to generation.
- (C.10306)
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