Rare Issue of Vespasian Junior

Triton XVIII, Lot: 879. Estimate $2000. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Smyrna. Vespasian Junior. Caesar, AD ?-95/6. Æ (16mm, 1.92 g, 6h). Struck circa AD 94-95. OYЄCΠAC[IANO]C NЄΩTЄPOC, bareheaded and draped bust right / ZMYP–NAIΩN, Nike advancing left, holding wreath and palm frond. Klose Class XLII, Series A, Group a, 9 (V4/R7); BMC 317 (same dies); Vagi 1164; RPC I 1029. VF, brown surfaces. Rare, fourteen known to Klose from three obverse dies.

From the R.A.M. Collection.

One of the greatest problems facing Domitian toward the end of his reign was the lack of an heir – a problem which he solved by adopting two sons of his niece Domitilla and her husband Titus Flavius Clemens, renaming the heirs Vespasian Junior and Domitian Junior. Becoming suspicious of Flavius, Domitian exiled him along with Domitilla to Pandateria on charges of atheism. As nothing further is recorded about either adopted heir, it can be assumed that both were punished in some way for the supposed crimes of their parents.