Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 906. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $6250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DOMITIAN. 81-96 AD. AV Aureus (7.66 gm). Struck 92-94 AD. DOMITIANVS AVGVSTVS, bare head right / GERMANICVS, COS XVI in exergue, emperor in quadriga left, holding branch and sceptre; car decorated with Victory crowning trophy with wreath. RIC II 185a; BMCRE 213; BN 190; Calicó 852; Cohen 161 var. (laureate head right). Good VF with underlying luster. [See color enlargement on plate 17] ($7500)

Domitian always stood in the shadow of his father and elder briother. Vespasian and Titus had been heaped with military and civic honors throughout their long and distinguished careers When he became emperor in 81 AD, Domitian used his position to gain the glory that would equal or exceed that his father and brother had won in the Jewish War. The best he could hope for was a a series of moderately successful campaigns against the Germans and Dacians. This remarkable aureus proclaims him as Germanicus, a title he had assumed about a decade earlier, and serves as a memoir of his triumph in 89 AD.