Aureus - Vespasian Judaea

Issued in the immediate aftermath of the Jewish War, this aureus belongs to the Judaea Capta series — one of the most sustained propaganda campaigns in Roman numismatic history, commemorating Vespasian and Titus's destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the sack of the Second Temple. The campaign served a dynastic purpose as much as a military one: Vespasian needed the conquest to legitimize the Flavian claim to power, having seized the throne during the chaos of 69 AD's four-emperor civil war.

RIC II.1 363 was struck at Rome. The Temple treasury's plundered gold almost certainly funded Flavian building projects, and possibly the coins themselves.