ROMAN EMPIRE Ancient Coin AE16
Askalon, Philistia Mint
DOMITIAN
Titus Flavius Domitianus Roman Emperor 81-96AD Obv:
Turreted head of Tyche right Rev: HyP War galley right
14.00 mm
ALL COINS ARE GENUINE LIFETIME GUARANTEE AND PROFESSIONALLY ATTRIBUTED The attribution label is printed on archival museum quality paper
| An interesting coin of Domitian minted in Askalon, Philistia. Turreted busts of Tyche and war galley on reverse. This coin comes with display case, stand and attribution label attached as pictured. A great way to display an ancient coins collection. You are welcome to ask any questions prior buying or bidding. We can ship it anywhere within continental U.S. for a flat rate of 6.90$. It includes shipping, delivery confirmation and packaging material.
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Askalon Ashkelon was the oldest and largest seaport in Canaan, one of the "five cities" of the Philistines, north of Gaza and south of Jaffa (Yafa).
The city was originally built on a sandstone outcropping and has a good underground water supply. It was relatively large as an ancient city with as many as 15,000 people living inside walls a mile and a half (2.4 km) long, 50 feet (15 m) high and 150 feet (50 m)[citation needed] thick. Ashkelon was a thriving Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BC) city of more than 150 acres (61 ha), with commanding ramparts including the oldest arched city gate in the world, eight feet wide, and even as a ruin still standing two stories high. The thickness of the walls was so great that the mudbrick Bronze Age gate had a stone-lined tunnel-like barrel vault, coated with white plaster, to support the superstructure: it is the oldest such vault ever found. Later Roman and Islamic fortifications, faced with stone, followed the same footprint, a vast semicircle protecting Ashkelon on the landward side. On the sea it was defended by a high natural bluff.
In 1991, a votive silver calf was discovered in the ruins of a sanctuary. During the Canaanite period, a roadway more than 20 feet (6.1 m) in width ascended the rampart from the harbor and entered a gate at the top. Nearby, in the ruins of a small ceramic tabernacle was found a finely cast bronze statuette of a bull calf, originally silvered, 4 inches (100 mm) long. Images of calves and bulls were associated with the worship of the Canaanite gods El and Baal.
The Amarna letters correspondence of Ashkelon/(Ašqaluna), of 1350 BC, contains seven letters to the Egyptian pharaoh, from its "King"/mayor: Yidya. Yidya was the only ruler of Ašqaluna during the 15–20-year time period. One letter from the pharaoh to Yidya was discovered in the early 1900s.
Philistine settlement
The Philistines conquered Canaanite Ashkelon about 1150 BC. Their earliest pottery, types of structures and inscriptions are similar to the early Greek urbanised centre at Mycenae in mainland Greece, adding weight to the hypothesis that the Philistines were possibly one of the populations among the "Sea Peoples" that upset cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean at that time. Ashkelon became one of the five Philistine cities that were constantly warring with the Israelites and the Kingdom of Judah. According to Herodotus, its temple of Venus was the oldest of its kind, imitated even in Cyprus, and he mentions that this temple was pillaged by marauding "Scythians" during the time of their sway over the Medes (653–625 BC). When this vast seaport, the last of the Philistine cities to hold out against Nebuchadnezzar finally fell in 604 BC, burnt and destroyed and its people taken into exile, the Philistine era was over.
Classical period
Ashkelon was soon rebuilt. Until the conquest of Alexander the Great, Ashkelon's inhabitants were influenced by the dominant - culture. It is in this archaeological layer that excavations have found dog burials. It is believed the dogs may have had a sacred role, however evidence is not conclusive. After the conquest of Alexander in the 4th century BC, Ashkelon was an important Hellenistic seaport.
According to the Tanakh, Ashkelon is one of the cities given to the Jewish people as a heritage. (Joshua 13:3) The Jews of Judea drove the Greeks out of the region during the Maccabean Revolt, which lasted from 167 to 160 BC. The Hasmonean Kingdom was then established, which Ashkelon thereafter became a part of.
The Hasmonean kingdom fell in 63 BC, and the area was incorporated into the Roman Republic. Queen Cleopatra VII used Ashkelon as her place of refuge when her brother and sister exiled her in 49 BC. She organized an army on the site but did not need to use it due to Julius Caesar's arrival in Alexandria. Ashkelon was later placed under the rule of Herod the Great, a Jewish client king of Rome. Ashkelon may have even been his birthplace. Josephus states Ashkelon was not ceded to Herod the Great in 30 BC, yet he built monumental buildings there: bath houses, elaborate fountains and large colonnades. The city remained loyal to Rome during the Great Revolt, 66–70 AD, and in the following centuries it grew to be an important centre. It appears on a fragment of the 6th century AD Madaba Map.
DOMITIAN
Titus Flavius Domitianius was the younger son of Vespasian and Flavia Domitilla, born in AD 51 at Rome. He was the younger and the clearly less favoured son of Vespasian who cared much more for his heir Titus.
During his father’s uprising against Vitellius in AD 69, Domitian was in fact in Rome. Though he remained unharmed.
When the city prefect of Rome and elder brother of Vespasian, Titus Flavius Sabinus attempted to seize power, during the confusion about Vitellius' alleged abdication, on 18 December AD 69, Domitian was with his uncle Sabinus. He hence went through the fighting on the Capitol, though, unlike Sabinus, he managed to escape.
For a short time after arrival of his father's troops, Domitian enjoyed the privilege of acting as regent. Mucianus (the governor of Middle East and ally of Vespasian who had led an army of 20'000 to Rome) acted as Domitian's colleague in this regency and carefully kept Domitian in check.
For example with there being rebels against the new regime in Germany and Gaul, Domitian was eager to seek glory in suppressing the revolt, trying to equal his brother Titus' military exploits. But he was prevented from doing this by Mucianus.
When alas Vespasian arrived in Rome to rule it was made evidently clear to everyone that Titus was to be the imperial heir.
Titus had no son. Hence if he failed to still produce or adopt an heir, the throne would eventually fall to Domitian. Domitian, however, was never granted any position of authority nor allowed to win any military glory for himself. If Titus was meticulously groomed to be emperor, Domitian received no such attention at all. Evidently he was not deemed fit by his father to hold power.
Domitian instead dedicated himself to poetry and the arts, though it is thought he harboured much resentment at his treatment.
When Titus eventually acceded to the throne in AD 79 nothing changed for Domitian. He was granted honours, but nothing else. Relations between the two brothers were markedly cool and it is largely believed that Titus shared his deceased father's opinion that Domitian was not fit for office.
In fact Domitian later claimed that Titus had denied him what should had rightfully been his rightful place as imperial colleague.
Titus died in AD 81 amongst rumours that Domitian had poisoned him. But more likely he died from illness.
But Domitian was not even to wait for his brother to die. While Titus lay dying, he hurried to the praetorian camp and had himself proclaimed emperor by the soldiers.
The following day, 14 September AD 81, with Titus dead, he was confirmed emperor by the senate. His first act was, no doubt reluctantly, to enact Titus' deification. He may have held a grudge, but his own interests were best served by further celebrating the Flavian house.
But now Domitian was determined to equal the military achievements of his predecessors. He wanted to be known as a conqueror.
In AD 83 he completed the conquest of the Agri Decumates, the lands beyond the upper Rhine and upper Danube, which his father Vespasian had begun. He moved against tribes like the Chatti and drove the empire's frontier to the rivers Lahn and Main.
After such victorious campaigns against the Germans, he would often wear the costume of a victorious general in public, at times also when he visited the senate.
Shortly after he raised the pay of the army from 300 to 400 sesterces, a fact which should naturally make him popular with the soldiery. Although by that time a pay rise had perhaps become well necessary, as over time inflation had reduced the soldiers' income.
By all accounts Domitian appears to have been a thoroughly nasty person, rarely polite, insolent, arrogant and cruel.
He was a tall man, with large eyes, though weak sight.
And showing all the signs of someone drunk with power, he preferred to be addressed as 'dominus et deus' ('master and god').
In AD 83 Domitian displayed that terrifying adherence to the very letter of the law, which should make him so feared by the people of Rome. Three Vestal Virgins, convicted of immoral behaviour, were put to death. It is true that these stringent rules and punishments had once been observed by Roman society. But times had changed and the public now tended to see these punishments of the Vestals as mere acts of cruelty.
Meanwhile the governor of Britain, Cnaeus Julius Agricola, was successfully campaigning against the Picts. He had already won some victories in various parts of Britain and now advanced into northern Scotland were at Mons Graupius he gained a significant victory over the Picts in battle.
Then in AD 85 Agricola was suddenly recalled from Britain. If he was at the brink of achieving the final conquest of Britain, has been the subject of much speculation. One will never know. It appears that Domitian, so eager to prove himself a great conqueror, was in fact jealous of Agricola's success. Agricola's death in AD 93 is rumoured to have been the work of Domitian by having him poisoned.
In a move to increase his power over the senate, Domitian proclaimed himself 'perpetual censor' in AD 85, which granted him near unlimited power over the assembly.
Domitian was more and more being understood as a tyrant, who didn't even refrain from having senators who opposed his policies assassinated.
But his strict enforcement of the law also brought its benefits. Corruption amongst city officials and within the law courts was reduced.
Seeking to impose his morals, he prohibited the castration of males and penalized homosexual senators.
Domitian's administration is judged to have been sound and efficient, though at times pedantic - he insisted on spectators at public games being properly dressed in togas. Always worried about state finances, he at times displayed near neurotic meanness.
But the finances of the empire were further organised, to the point that imperial expenditure could at last be reasonably forecast. And under his rule Rome itself became yet more cosmopolitan.
But Domitian was especially rigorous in exacting taxes from the Jews, taxes which were imposed by emperor (since Vespasian) for allowing them to practice their own faith (fiscus iudaicus). Many Christians were also tracked down and forced to pay the tax, based on the widespread Roman belief that they were Jews pretending to be something else.
The circumstances surrounding the recall of Agricola and the suspicions that this had been done only for purposes of jealousy, only further fueled Domitian's hunger for military glory.
This time his attention turned to the kingdom of Dacia. In AD 85 the Dacians under their king Decebalus had crossed the Danube in raids which even saw the death of the governor of Moesia, Oppius Sabinus.
Domitian led his troops to the Danube region but returned soon after, leaving his armies to fight. At first these armies suffered another defeat at the hands of the Dacians. However, the Dacians were eventually driven back and in AD 89 Tettius Julianus defeated them at Tapae.
But in the same year, AD 89, Lucius Antonius Saturninus was proclaimed emperor by two legions in Upper Germany. One believes that much of Saturninus' cause for rebellion was the increasing oppression of homosexuals by the emperor. Saturninus being a homosexual himself, he rebelled against the oppressor.
But Lappius Maximus, the commander of Lower Germany remained loyal. At the following battle of Castellum, Saturninus was killed and this brief rebellion was at an end. Lappius on purposely destroyed Saturninus' files in the hope of preventing a massacre. But Domitian wanted vengeance. On the emperor's arrival Saturninus' officers were mercilessly punished.
Domitian suspected, most likely with good reason, that Saturninus had hardly acted on his own. Powerful allies in the senate of Rome more than likely had been his secret supporters. And so in Rome now the vicious treason trials returned, seeking to purge the senate of conspirators.
Though after this interlude on the Rhine, Domitian's attention was soon drawn back to the Danube. The Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi and the Sarmatian Jazyges were causing trouble.
A treaty was agreed with the Dacians who were all too happy to accept peace. Then Domitian moved against the troublesome barbarians and defeated them.
The time he spent with the soldiers on the Danube only further increased his popularity with the army.
In Rome however, things were different. In AD 90 Cornelia, the head of the Vestal Virgins was walled up alive in an underground cell, after being convicted of 'immoral behaviour', while her alleged lovers were beaten to death.
And in Judaea Domitian stepped up the policy introduced by his father to track down and execute Jews claiming descent from their ancient king David. But if this policy under Vespasian had been introduced to eliminate any potential leaders of rebellions, then with Domitian it was pure religious oppression. Even among leading Romans in Rome itself this religious tyranny found victims. The consul Flavius Clemens was killed and his wife Flavia Domitilla banished, for being convicted of 'godlessness'. Most likely they were sympathisers with Jews.
Domitian's ever greater religious zealotry was a sign of the emperor's increasing tyranny. The senate by then was treated with open contempt by him.
Meanwhile the treason trials had so far cost the lives of twelve former consuls. Ever more senators were falling victim to allegations of treason. Members of Domitian's own family were not safe from accusation by the emperor.
Also Domitian's own praetorian prefects weren't safe. The emperor dismissed both prefects and brought charges against them.
But the two new praetorian commanders, Petronius Secundus and Norbanus, soon learned that allegations had been made against them, too. They realised they needed to act quickly in order to save their lives.
It was summer AD 96 when the plot was hatched, involving the two praetorian prefects, the German legions, leading men from the provinces and the leading figures of Domitian's administration, - even the emperor's own wife Domitia Longina. By now, it appears, everyone wanted to rid Rome of this menace.
Stephanus, an ex-slave of Flavius Clemens' banished widow, was recruited for the assassination. Together with an accomplice Stephanus duly murdered the emperor. Though it involved a violent hand-to-hand struggle in which Stephanus himself also lost his life. (18 September AD 96)
The senate, relieved that the dangerous and tyrannical emperor was no more, was at last in a position to make its own choice of ruler. It nominated a respected lawyer, Marcus Cocceius Nerva (AD 32-98), to take over government. It was a inspired choice of great significance, which laid out the destiny of the Roman empire for some time to come. Domitian meanwhile was denied a state funeral, and his name was obliterated from all public buildings.
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