Vespasian!

I saved up a little of money for the past Triskeles Auction and am very pleased with my two purchases. This one was the first one that caught my eye. I have been looking for an awesome Vespasian.

I may have mentioned before that the year of four emperors is one of my favourite times in Roman history. Vespasian was sent to Judea to suppress the Jewish revolt and was there when Nero died. A couple months after Vitellius secured his rule Vespasian's troops declared him emperor. However, rather than march on Rome directly he sent one of his strongest supporters at the head of some of his legions towards Rome while he went to Alexandria. He knew Rome was reliant on the grain supplies of Alexandria and by controlling the grain supply it would be only a matter of time until he controlled Rome itself. It wasn't until mid-70 that he actually traveled to Rome.

Vespasian. A.D. 69-79. Æ sestertius (32 mm, 25.01 g, 6 h). Rome, A.D. 71.
IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M TR P P P COS III, laureate head of Vespasian right
PAX AVGVSTI, S C across field, Pax standing, facing, head left, holding olive branch and cornucopiae.
RIC 181; BMC 554; BN 512-5.




For some reason the camera on my tablet loves to highlight red so I have included the auction photo as well to get a better idea of the colour.



Big bronze is awesome!