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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David Atherton, post: 2653772, member: 82616&quot;]Believe it or not, this is my first Julia Titi. I have no good answer as to why it has taken me so long to acquire a coin of hers.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]587507[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Julia Titi</b></p><p>AR Denarius, 3.22g</p><p>Rome mint, 80-81 AD</p><p>RIC T387 (R). BMC T140, RSC 12</p><p>Obv: IVLIA AVGVSTA T AVG F; Bust of Julia Titi, draped and diademed, r.; hair in long plait</p><p>Rev: VENVS AVG; Venus stg. r., leaning on column, with helmet and spear</p><p>Acquired from Aegean Numismatics, February 2017.</p><p><br /></p><p>A rare variant of the &#039;common&#039; Venus type for Julia Titi with shortened obverse and reverse legends. NB: Julia&#039;s denarii were not struck in plentiful numbers.</p><p><br /></p><p>A quick biographical note about Julia. She was the daughter of Titus born on 13 September 64 and granted the title Augusta sometime in 80 or 81. Coins were issued in her name bearing the new title. After Titus&#039; death she lived with her uncle Domitian at the imperial residence. The ancient sources are quick to malign her reputation in the name of smearing Domitian. It is said she had an ongoing affair with Domitian and became pregnant. She then was forced by Domitian to abort the baby and died during the attempted abortion sometime in 90 or 91. The Flavian historian Brian Jones has called the supposed affair between Domitian and his niece Julia (some ten or eleven years his junior) and the subsequent forced abortion which killed her as &quot;implausible&quot; and &quot;nonsense&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Further he wrote &quot;Scholars seem not to have stressed one of the most significant factors in assessing the rumour&#039;s accuracy - Martial&#039;s epigram 6.3, written not long after Julia&#039;s death and deification. In it, he expresses the hope that Domitian will produce a son, implies that the baby&#039;s name will be Julius (6.3.1) and states that (the now deified) Julia will be able to watch over him (6.3.5). Martial was neither a hero or a fool. Had there been the slightest hint of an affair between emperor and niece, he would hardly have written those lines; had Julia&#039;s recent death been caused by an abortion forced on her by Domitian, would Martial have so far neglected the bounds of &#039;safe criticism&#039; and common sense as to humiliate Domitia publicly, urging her to become pregnant, to give the child a name reminiscent of her husband&#039;s mistress and finally to remember that same mistress, now dead and deified (thanks to her husband), would be able to protect the child?&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>At any rate, I don&#039;t think I did too badly with my first coin of Julia Titi.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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