ARMENIA ‘CAPTA’

CNG 85, Lot: 65. Estimate $10000. Sold for $22000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AV Aureus (22mm, 7.80 g, 12h). Pergamum mint. Struck circa 19-18 BC. Bare head right; AVGVSTVS below / ARMENIA CAPTA, Victory facing right, straddling bull held by the horns. RIC I 514; Calicó 160a. Good VF, flan slightly wavy. Rare.

From the R.A. Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group XXVII (29 September 1993), lot 36; Numismatic Fine Arts XII (23 March 1983), lot 153.

The eastern part of the Roman empire had long proven to be a difficult region to control. In 53 BC, Crassus was defeated and killed at the Battle of Carrhae and Rome had lost her legionary standards. The limits of Roman might were severely tested, as keeping Armenia free from Parthian domination was of great importance to Augustus. When the Armenians asked for Rome’s help in ridding them of Artaxias II in favor of his brother, Tigranes III, Augustus sent Tiberius to deal with the matter. The Armenians themselves, however, removed Artaxias, Tiberius arriving too late to be of aid. Never missing an opportunity to use propaganda for their advantage, the Romans treated this ‘victory’ as a monumental diplomatic triumph represented on this and the following two issues.

For this particular issue, Richard Prideaux suggests that the reverse iconography and consequent interpretation should be reexamined. The type is generally described as Victory cutting the throat of a recumbent bull, without any explanation of this weird and unusual scene. However, a close inspection reveals that the scene does not depict an act of throat cutting, nor any knife in Victory’s hand. Instead, Victory is mastering the bull by holding and turning its horns, as some famous wrestler is said to have done in an arena. The significance of this would have been obvious to the soldiers, citizens, or anyone else handling or viewing the coin. The scene should be correctly interpreted as the Romans’ mastering of the Taurus mountain range, the natural and formidable barrier beyond which Armenia was thought to have been out of reach and secure.