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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Mikey Zee, post: 2499000, member: 72818&quot;]This denarius of Titus, struck 80 AD, exhibits &#039;honest wear&#039;, about VF grade and difficult to determine if once a light beard graced the chin on the portrait or a cuirass draped the elephant on the reverse-----probably not. My understanding is that this coin was meant to commemorate the opening of the 100 days of games at the (Flavian) Amphitheater which was also referred to as the &#039;Hunting Theater&#039; and centuries later as the &#039;Colosseum&#039; that we all know today. Most &#039;authorities&#039; including the authors of a small book titled &quot;Colosseum&quot;, co-authored by Mary Beard and Keith Hopkins, argue that the games were spread over a much longer time ---perhaps a year---and not held consecutively day after day. Moreover they feel the number of animals slain during these games are grossly exaggerated by ancient authors and were &#039;only&#039; a fraction of the 5-9,000 reported as slain---still a staggering figure. It seems that animals were &#039;matched&#039; against other species, among themselves and against human adversaries usually referred to as &#039;bestiarius&#039;. Elephants seem to have &#039;enjoyed&#039; the same protocols, typically matched against bulls, other elephants or human hunters.</p><p><br /></p><p>Further, although possibly an exaggeration, it is estimated that the combination of 100 days of games resulted in the deaths of about 2,000 gladiators and &#039;criminals&#039;. On the other hand, the human toll, cumulatively EMPIRE-WIDE, (excluding &#039;criminal&#039; executions) or death solely by gladiatorial combat, is &#039;conservatively&#039; estimated to be about 2,000 combined in all individual games held CONCURRENTLY throughout the ENTIRE Roman world. But this is presuming only two shows per venue per year. Most authorities feel that an average gladiator fought three or four times a year and had a life-expectancy of between 1 to 3 years. Whether these bouts were fought with &#039;deadly weapons&#039; or periodically of wooden varieties in a non-lethal exhibition is still disputed. Regardless, even if a gladiator survived the bout, any injury or &#039;flesh wound&#039; could still prove to be fatal. This degree of animal and human slaughter had to be absolutely mind-numbing to the ancients as it is to us today yet thousands flocked to each and every show throughout the Empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>While the reality of the &#039;Arena&#039; does diminish the romantic allure of the &#039;Colosseum&#039; to a significant degree, this coin has such a cool reverse that I couldn&#039;t resist adding this silver coin of Titus, despite what it actually seems to represent. Rome meant to visibly demonstrate that it was not only the conqueror of nations but of nature as well---- literally masters of the natural world as they knew it.</p><p><br /></p><p>AR Denarius of Titus, struck at Rome 80 AD</p><p>3.21 grams, 18 mm</p><p>Laureate bust right</p><p>IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG PM</p><p>Elephant advancing right</p><p>TR P IX IMP XV COS VIII P P</p><p>RIC 115</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]529982[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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