20070429

Trajan CE 98-117



AE As of an Eastern mint, according to Hendin this is a provincial coin from the time of the War of Quietus CE 115-117, 8.07 g.,

H. 938, RCV 3243 (Antioch? CE 115-116), RIC 644 var., BMCRE 1093

O: Radiate, draped bust of Trajan, IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GERM
R: SC in a laurel wreath surrounded by DAC PARTHICO PM TR POT XX COS VI PP

Ex: Windsor Antiquities


From the Jewish Encyclopedia: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=237&letter=B

War of Quietus.

The insurrection of the Jews of Cyrene, Cyprus, and Egypt in the last years of the emperor Trajan had not been entirely suppressed when Hadrian assumed the reins of government in 118. The seat of war was transferred to Palestine, whither the Jewish leader Lucwas had fled (Abulfaraj, in Münter, "Der Jüdische Krieg," p. 18, Altona and Leipsic, 1821). Marcius Turbo had pursued him, and had sentenced to death the brothers Julian and Pappus, who had been the soul of the rebellion. But Turbo was himself executed upon special orders sent from Rome, and the lives of the brothers were saved (Sifra, Emor, viii. 9 [ed. Weiss, p. 99d]; Meg. Ta'anit xii.; Ta'anit 18b; Sem. viii.; Eccl. R. iii. 17). Lucius Quietus, the conqueror of the Jews of Mesopotamia, was now in command of the Roman army in Palestine, and laid siege to Lydda, where the Jews had gathered. The distress became so great that the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II., who was shut up there and died soon afterward, permitted fasting even on Ḥanukkah; though other rabbis, such as the peace-loving R. Joshua b. Hananiah, condemned this measure (Ta'anit ii. 10; Yer. Ta'anit ii. 66a; Yer. Meg. i. 70d; R. H. 18b). Soon afterward Lydda was taken and masses of the Jews were executed; the "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud (Pes. 50a; B. B. 10b; Eccl. R. ix. 10). Pappus and Julian were among those executed by the Romans in the same year (Ta'anit 18b; Yer. Ta'anit 66b). The foregoing are the most important events of the campaign of Quietus as mentioned in rabbinical sources (see also "Revue Etudes Juives," xxx. 212).


Also cf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitos_War