Last week I posted a rare sestertius struck for Domitian featuring a quadrifrontal arch on the reverse. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/enough.368271/ This week I wish to share a newly acquired drachm from Alexandria sporting an elaborate Domitianic arch. Domitian Æ Drachm, 21.82g Alexandria mint, 95-96 AD Obv: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙϹ ΘƐΟΥ ΥΙΟϹ ΔΟΜΙΤ ϹƐΒ ΓƐΡΜ; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r. Rev: Triumphal arch; date LΙΕ RPC 2728 (9 spec.). Acquired from Glenn Terry, eBay, October 2020. He erected so many and such huge vaulted passage-ways and arches in the various regions of the city, adorned with chariots and triumphal emblems, that on one of them someone wrote in Greek: "enough!" - Suetonius, Life of Domitian, 13.2. This remarkable drachm struck at Alexandria during Domitian's final regnal year features a grandiose triple-span triumphal arch. The exact location of the structure is unknown. Some scholars have argued it represents a local Alexandrian arch (Price-Trell 1977, Vogt 1924, Handler 1971). F. Kleiner on the other hand convincingly proposes it to be a triumphal arch erected in Rome commemorating Domitian's victory over the Germanic Chatti. That it's a triumphal arch is fairly sound. The rooftop central figure of the emperor driving a triumphal quadriga pulled by six horses, flanked by twin trophies with defeated captives makes it fairly clear the arch was erected with a triumph in mind. The type first appeared on Alexandrian tetradrachms in 86, just a few years after the victory over the Chatti making a connection to that triumph very appealing. How accurate is the depiction? We simply do not know. Quite possibly the Alexandrian engravers based the composition on generic stock triumphal types, perhaps augmented by written descriptions, paintings, or sketches. The arch did not survive antiquity but is replicated on drachms of Trajan and Hadrian, likely repurposed for their own needs. The fact the structure was not pulled down and suffered damnatio memoriae, the fate of many Domitianic arches, is surprising. Luckily the coins survive to give us an idea of what this impressive monument may have looked like. A. L. Frothingham conjectured the famous Arch of Constantine is actually an arch erected by Domitian(!). Could our triple-span numismatic arch be one and the same? Feel free to post anything you feel relevant.
Speaking of repurposing of Roman architecture, I love the amphitheatre in Arles, 'retrofitted' in the Middle Ages as a town wall. http://community.middlebury.edu/~slides/HA220/views/aoc089_view.html
Also, thanks to @Alwin for posting a line drawing in the other 'Enough!' thread from the 1965 reprint of the 1859 antiquarian book Ancient Architecture on Greek and Roman Coins and Medals by T.L. Donaldson. It inspired me to obtain my own copy! An Ex Library copy for $4. Worth every penny.
You'd think someone would bring it out in one of those cheap, scanned 'reprint' (except, technically, not so much) editions that average around $20 new. ...I've gone that route before with a couple of things. More to the point, just took a first look at your gallery. I really like your Antioch tet with Vespasian and Titus facing opposite directions (cool eagle, too!).
