Æ-Sestertius, ca. 134-138, Rome; 28.02 g.

Æ-Sestertius, ca. 134-138, Rome; 28.02 g. HADRIANVS - AVG COS III P P; draped laureate bust of Hadrianus to r.//ADVENTVI AVGVSTI IVDAEAE, S - C in the exergue; the emperor Hadrian, clad with a toga, having raised his r. hand for the greeting, and standing at the l. side is looking to the r. where the personification of the province of Judaea, clad with a Graeco-Roman dress and accompanied by representatives of the Jewish people who hold palm fronds in their hands, is sacrificing incense over an altar with a blazing flame. Judaea holds a small incense box in her left hand. Hendin 1604a; RIC no. 890; P.L. Strack, Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts II. Die Reichsprägung des Hadrian, Stuttgart 1933, 162 f.; J.M.C. Toynbee, The Hadrianic School. A Chapter in the History of Greek Art, Cambridge 1934, 117-121.


Very rare. Flan crack, corroded, nearly very fine

Overbeck – Meshorer no. 355.

Regardless of whether this coin was minted before the Bar Kokhba revolt or afterwards, it has nothing to do with the real circumstances of Hadrian’s visit in Judaea that took place in the early summer of 130 (cf. H. Halfmann, Itinera principum, Stuttgart 1986, 207; A.R. Birley, Hadrian. The restless emperor, London/New York 1997, 231 f.). All the Adventus coins minted in the last years of Hadrian’s reign show stereotypical welcoming ceremonies. They should evoke a reminiscence to Hadrian’s extensive travel activities in many parts of the Roman Empire. In the case of Judaea the coins gloss over the enormous tensions in the province, especially caused by Hadrian’s dislike, if not hatred of Jews and the Jews’ desire to rebuild the destroyed temple. "The thoroughly Greek character of Judaea on these coins gives the impression that it had become a Hellenised province like any other in the east" (so Birley, l.c.). In the Bar Kokhba revolt Rome had to experience that this was a fatal error. In descriptions of these coins the small figures accompanying Judaea are called "children"; they may be understood as Judaea’s children, but they are adults who are about to welcome Hadrian by swinging palm fronds, just like many Jews did when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Hadrian’s and Judaea’s sizes are based on their significance and not on their real proportions.