Arch of Domitian in Rome
Celebrating Victories in Germany

Triton XXI, Lot: 41. Estimate $500. Sold for $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Domitian. AD 81-96. Æ Drachm (35mm, 24.26 g, 12h). Dated RY 15 (AD 95/96). [AVT] KA[IC] ΘΕΟV VΙΟC ΔΟΜΙΤ CEB [ΓΕΡΜ], laureate head right / Triumphal arch with three bays between columns, two windows above; roof surmounted by statuary group of Domitian driving horses between trophies; L IE (date) across field. Köln 415-6; Dattari (Savio) 544; K&G 24.238; RPC II 2728; Emmett 257.15; Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 36 (this coin). VF, brown patina with patches of green, minor roughness. Important architectural type, with nice detail displayed on this example.

From the Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection, purchased from Italo Vecchi, London, April 1991.

While often assumed to depict a local Egyptian monument, Fred Kleiner (“An arch of Domitian in Rome on coins of Alexandria,” NC 1989, pp. 69-81) has convincingly argued that the arch was erected elsewhere, almost certainly in the capital, to commemorate Domitian’s victories in Germany. Indeed, Suetonius (Dom. 13.2) records that the emperor erected so many arci – Latin for arches – in Rome that a Greek punster wrote on one of them ἀρκεῖ (enough).

It is also interesting to note that the production of Aes denominations finally started to increase at the Alexandrian mint during the reign of Domitian, and at the expense of the billon production.