Sestertius - Vespasian MARS VICTOR S C, Mars and Victory

Vespasian struck this issue in 71 AD to celebrate the conclusion of the Jewish War — the campaign that had effectively made him emperor. The war's spoils, paraded through Rome in a triumph shared with Titus, funded an extraordinary surge in mint output that year. JUDAEA CAPTA types dominate collector attention from this period, but the Mars Victor issues belong to the same triumphal moment and the same political calculus: a new dynasty, the Flavians, needed military virtue embedded in its earliest coinage.

RIC II.1 #175 is among the more frequently encountered Vespasianic sestertii from this emission, though die quality varies considerably across the series.