DISCIPLINA AVG - End of Hostilities in Judaea

178, Lot: 125. Estimate $2000. Sold for $2960. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 27.46 g). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 134-138. Laureate and draped bust right / DISCIPLINA AVG, Hadrian advancing right, holding roll, followed by three soldiers carrying standards and an officer holding a staff. RIC II 746; BMCRE 1487; Cohen 542. Good VF, mostly brown patina with a trace of some red, fields smoothed, details lightly enhanced.

RIC, in discussing the reverse type, states it "celebrates the military reforms of the Emperor", without defining what specific event triggered the commemoration on this sestertius. It is most likely related to the conclusion of the last great military campaign of Hadrian's reign, the Bar Kochba revolt in Judaea (132-135 AD). As an internal revolt, not a operation against foreign foes, the war did not warrant a coinage commemorating its end, but this coin would indirectly mark its conclusion, praising the legions for their steadfastness while stressing the re-ordering of the armies for peacetime and the standing down from a war footing, and the arrangements made for retiring veterans, i.e. the distribution of land and other benefits.