A Diverse Offering of the Coinage of Aelia Capitolina

CNG 90, Lot: 1160. Estimate $500. Sold for $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUDAEA, Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem). Hadrian. 117-138 CE. Æ (22mm, 10.20 g, 11h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Hadrian as founder plowing right with yoke of two oxen; vexillum in background. Meshorer, Aelia 2; SNG ANS -; Rosenberger 1. Near EF, dark green and black patina. Well struck and nicely preserved for issue, rare as such.

From the Patrick H.C. Tan Collection.

INTRODUCTION TO AELIA CAPITOLINA

The Roman city of Colonia Aelia Capitolina was refounded by the emperor Hadrian on the ancient city of Jerusalem, still in ruins following its destruction during the First Jewish War in 70 CE. Whether this occurred during or after Hadrian's visit to the region in 130/1 CE has been a matter of speculation. According to Dio (69.12.1), the refoundation took place during the imperial visit to the ruins, when Hadrian, in addition to performing the ritual of plowing the pomerium, also raised a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount. It resulted also in the outbreak of the Bar Kokchba War the next year in 132 CE. Eusebius (Hist. eccl. 4.6.), however, put the date of the refounding at 136 CE, following the suppression of the revolt, noting that the refoundation was a divine punishment for the Jews attempting to rebuild the Temple. Meshorer noted that hoards of Bar-Kokba coins also contained early issues of Aelia Capitolina of the pontiff plowing pomerium type, confirming Dio's view of the early date of refoundation.

The new city was to be populated by legionary veterans and non-Jews only, and it was to be laid out along the lines of the traditional Roman colonia. The north-south cardo maximus formed the central commercial area of the new city, while the east-west decumanus formed the secondary main street. From these two main thoroughfares, the remainder of the new city was laid out in a grid pattern. Because of the limitations of local geography (and due to the presence of the Temple Mount), a second cardo ran from a semicircular plaza decorated with a column surmounted by a statue of Hadrian south of the North (Damascus) Gate down the Tyropoion Valley, while a second decumanus paralleled the first. The main forum was located at the junction of the main cardo and decumanus and next to the new Temple of Venus, itself built near the site of ancient Golgotha. A second forum was situated to the northeast at the foot of the Temple Mount, over the old Antonia Fortress. The Temple Mount, now containing a temple to Jupiter, served as the new city's Capitolium.

Apart from its coinage, no traces of Aelia Capitolina during the second and third centuries AD have survived, due to the extensive rebuilding during the Byzantine period. For a depiction of the city (showing the cardo maximus) and the surrounding countryside during the sixth century AD, see the Madaba Map (http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/mad/index.html).