Sesterce of Vespasian with celebration of the conquest of Judea (P 6942/77)

Sesterce of Vespasian with celebration of the conquest of Judea (P 6942/77)

Obverse/ Imp Caes Vespasian; wreathed head of Vespasian shown in profile facing to the right; Reverse/ Victoria Augusti; winged Victory standing, shown in profile facing to the right, with her left foot on a helmet, writing on a shield which she holds in her left and, resting it on her knee; behind the shield is a palm tree whose trunk, in the lower right part, rests on a melancholy personification of Judea, in exergue SC. The type on the reverse celebrates the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus, son of Vespasian, and represents one of the many examples of imperial propaganda spread using coinage. The sesterce was found in a dolium set in a sales counter of the thermpolium of L. Vetutius Placidus, together with 364 asses and 1,237 quadrans. The first impression was that the coins represented the whole day’s takings, but the figure seems rather high for this hypothesis to be considered valid. It is more plausible that the sum represented the takings for the days prior to the eruption, considering that the daily needs for three people, estimated on the basis of the money found on the people fleeing the eruption and validated by the graffiti of expenses, was about six sesterces, and that a middle class Pompeian possessed approximately 200 sesterces. Other scholars have considered this to be a case of hoarding, in the belief that fleeing owners hid their savings in the hope of recovering it at a subsequent date, but phenomena of this kind usually regard coinage in precious metals, in other words gold and silver.