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Message:: [QUOTE="Terence Cheesman, post: 6316128, member: 86498"]Maybe this is one of the denarii that poor Messius didn't get to hold on to for very long. Titus as Caesar mint of Antioch 72-73 AD (which is during the fourth consulate of Vespasian Ar denarius Obv Bust right laureate draped and cuirassed seen from back Rv. Neptune standing left right foot resting on globe. RIC 1561 RPC 1933 3.32 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen [ATTACH=full]1250176[/ATTACH] I seem to remember reading something like this legionnaires  plight when I was studying History and Classics at the University of Alberta. This is close to fifty years ago. I remember the individual complaining that the money he had left was barely enough to bribe his centurion so that he would leave him alone. The depiction of Neptune holding on to an aplustre and having his foot resting on a globe is unusual. it does mirror a type used by Octavian/ Augustus about 100 years before. Thus it is possibly commemorative. However I read in a modern secondary source suggesting that when the Romans lost control of the coast of Judaea, there was a rise in piracy. If our understanding of the coin minted by Octavian is correct his coin would commemorate the suppression of Sextus Pompey and his "piratical" control of Sicily.  Thus this coin could be seen as part of the effort by Vespasian and Titus to link themselves closer to the founder of the Julio Claudian dynasty by emulating both his policies and his coinage.[/QUOTE]