170, Lot: 220. Estimate $200. Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Julia Titi. Augusta, AD 79-90/1. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.12 g). Rome mint. Struck under Titus, AD 80-81. Diademed and draped bust right / Venus standing right, leaning against cippus, holding helmet and sceptre. RIC II 56 (Titus); BMCRE 141 (Titus); RSC 14. Near VF, porous, reverse graffiti.

The only child of Titus, Julia was born about AD 65 and was granted the title of Augusta during her father's short reign. After Titus' death Julia's husband, her cousin Flavius Sabinus, served as Domitian's colleague in the consulship for 82, but two years later he was executed on the emperor's orders. Thereafter, the widowed Julia, still only nineteen, began living with her uncle Domitian, as his mistress according to the scandal-mongering rumors of the day. On her early death in 91 she was deified and Domitian issued sestertii commemorating “Diva Julia Augusta”. This beautiful denarius was issued by Titus in honor of his daughter. The modest figure of Venus Victrix, another Flavian appropriation from the Julio-Claudian coinage, was a most fitting type for the lovely young empress who was the daughter of the victor in the Jewish War.