VALERIUS GRATUS 17AD Judaea Province JERUSALEM Livia Tiberius Roman Coin i42830

Item: i42830

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Valerius Gratus

Prefect / Governor of Judaea
under
Roman Emperor
Tiberius

15-26 A.D. or possibly 15-18 A.D.

Bronze
Prutah 17mm (1.93 grams)
Jerusalem
mint, circa 15-26 A.D.
Reference: Hendin 1336
IOY ΛΙΑ (Julia) above vine leaf and small bunch of
grapes.
LΔ (year 4 = 17/18 A.D.) flanks narrow-necked amphora with scroll handles.

* Numismatic Note: Julia is Julia Augusta,
otherwise known as Livia, the mother of emperor Tiberius.

After banishing Herod Archealaus in 6 A.D., Rome wound up creating the governors
for the province of Judaea until about 66 A.D. The governors usually came from
the Roman class of Knights, whom held fewer privilages than the senate class.
The governors overall had the power to levy the taxes on behalf of Rome and
enrich themselves doing so. This wound up sowing the seeds of resentment among
the Jewish community and leading up to the Jewish Roman War. The coins of the
governors (called prefects until time of Claudius and procurators from then on)
had struck coins with the names of the emperors and their families. The
governors held lived in Caesarea Maritima and usually came to Jerusalem only in
times of great festivals when a lot of pilgrims would arrive there.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Valerius
Gratus was the Roman
Prefect
of
Iudaea province
under
Tiberius
from 15 to 26 AD. He succeeded
Annius Rufus
and was replaced by
Pontius Pilate
.

The government of Gratus is chiefly remarkable for the frequent changes he
made in the appointment of the
high-priesthood
. He deposed
Ananus
, and substituted
Ismael, son of Fabi
, then Eleazar, son of
Arianus, then Simon, son of Camith, and lastly
Joseph Caiaphas
, the son-in-law of Ananus.

In popular culture

In the book
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
and its
derived films, Gratus is almost killed by a tile which is accidentally dropped
by Judah Ben-Hur, which prompts all subsequent events of the story. In the novel
Gratus is portrayed as a corrupt governor who acted against the Jews by removing
the rightful head priest of the Temple, Hannas, and replacing him with a Roman
puppet, Ishmael.

Livia Drusilla, (Classical
Latin: LIVIA•DRVSILLA, LIVIA•AVGVSTA)
(58 BC–AD 29), after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14 also
known as Julia Augusta, was a Roman empress as the third wife of the

Emperor Augustus
and his advisor. She was the mother of
the Emperor Tiberius
, paternal grandmother of the Emperor
Claudius
, paternal great-grandmother of the
Emperor Caligula
, and maternal great-great grandmother
of the Emperor Nero
. She was
deified
by Claudius who acknowledged her title
of
Augusta
.

 Birth
and first marriage to Tiberius Claudius Nero

She was born on 30 January 59 or 58 BC as the daughter of
Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus
by his wife
Aufidia
, a daughter of the magistrate Marcus
Aufidius Lurco
. The diminutive Drusilla
often found in her name suggests that she was a second daughter.
Marcus Livius Drusus
was her brother. She was
probably married in 43 BC. Her first child, the future Emperor Tiberius, was
born in 42 BC. Her father married her to
Tiberius Claudius Nero
, her cousin of
patrician
status who was fighting with him on
the side of
Julius Caesar
‘s assassins against Octavian. Her
father committed suicide in the
Battle of Philippi
, along with
Gaius Cassius Longinus
and
Marcus Junius Brutus
, but her husband continued
fighting against Octavian, now on behalf of
Mark Antony
and
his brother
. In 40 BC, the family was forced to
flee Italy in order to avoid Octavian’s
proscriptions
and joined with
Sextus Pompeius
in
Sicily
, later moving on to
Greece
.

 Wife
of Augustus

A general amnesty was announced, and Livia returned to Rome, where she was
personally introduced to Octavian in 39 BC. At this time, Livia already had a
son, the future emperor
Tiberius
, and was pregnant with the second,
Nero Claudius Drusus
(also known as Drusus the
Elder). Legend said that Octavian fell immediately in love with her, despite the
fact that he was still married to
Scribonia
. Octavian divorced Scribonia in 39
BC, on the very day that she gave birth to his daughter
Julia the Elder
(Cassius
Dio). Seemingly around that time, when Livia was six months pregnant,
Tiberius Claudius Nero was persuaded or forced by Octavian to divorce Livia. On
14 January, the child was born. Octavian and Livia married on January 17,
waiving the traditional waiting period. Tiberius Claudius Nero was present at
the wedding, giving her in marriage “just as a father would.” The importance of
the patrician Claudii to Octavian’s cause, and the political survival of the
Claudii Nerones are probably more rational explanations for the tempestuous
union. Nevertheless, Livia and Octavian remained married for the next 51 years,
despite the fact that they had no children apart from a single miscarriage. She
always enjoyed the status of privileged counselor to her husband, petitioning
him on the behalf of others and influencing his policies, an unusual role for a
Roman wife in a culture dominated by the
paterfamilias
.

After Mark Antony
‘s suicide following the
Battle of Actium
in 31 BC, Octavian had removed
all obstacles to his power and henceforth ruled as
Emperor
, from 27 BC on, under the honorary
title Augustus. He and Livia formed the role model for Roman households.
Despite their wealth and power, Augustus’s family continued to live modestly in
their house on the
Palatine Hill
. Livia would set the pattern for
the noble Roman matrona
. She wore neither excessive jewelry
nor pretentious costumes, she took care of the household and her husband (often
making his clothes herself), always faithful and dedicated. In 35 BC Octavian
gave Livia the unprecedented honour of ruling her own finances and dedicated a
public statue to her. She had her own circle of clients and pushed many protégés
into political offices, including the grandfathers of the later emperors
Galba
and

Otho.

With Augustus being the father of only one daughter (Julia
the Elder by Scribonia), Livia revealed herself to be an ambitious
mother and soon started to push her own sons
Tiberius
and
Nero Claudius Drusus
into power. Drusus was a
trusted general and married Augustus’s favourite niece,
Antonia Minor
, and had three children: the
popular general
Germanicus
,
Livilla
, and the Emperor
Claudius
. Tiberius married Augustus’ daughter
Julia the Elder
in 11 BC and was ultimately
adopted by his stepfather in 4 BC and named as Augustus’ heir.

Rumor had it that when
Marcellus
, nephew of Augustus, died in 23 BC,
it was no natural death, and that Livia was behind it.^[9]
After the two elder sons of Julia by
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
, whom Augustus had
adopted as sons and successors, had died, the one remaining son
Agrippa Postumus
was incarcerated and finally
killed. Tacitus
charges that Livia was not altogether
innocent of these deaths and
Cassius Dio
also mentions such rumours, but not
even the gossipmonger
Suetonius
, who had access to official
documents, repeats them. Most modern historical accounts of Livia’s life
discount the idea. There are also rumors mentioned by Tacitus and Cassius Dio
that Livia brought about Augustus’ death by poisoning fresh figs. Augustus’
granddaughter was
Julia the Younger
. Sometime between 1 and 14,
her husband Paullus was executed as a conspirator in a revolt. Modern historians
theorize that Julia’s exile was not actually for adultery but for involvement in
Paulus’ revolt. Livia Drusilla plotted against her stepdaughter’s family and
ruined them. This led to open compassion for the fallen family. Julia died in 29
AD on the same island where she had been sent in exile twenty years earlier.

 Life
after Augustus, Death, and Aftermath

Augustus died in AD 14, being
deified
by the senate shortly afterwards. In
his will, he left one third of his property to Livia, and the other two thirds
to Tiberius
. In the will, he also adopted her into
the Julian family
and granted her the
honorific title of Augusta
. These dispositions
permitted Livia to maintain her status and power after his death, under the new
name of Julia Augusta.

For some time, Livia and her son Tiberius, the new Emperor, appeared to get
along with each other. Speaking against her became treason in AD 20, and in AD
24 he granted his mother a theatre seat among the
Vestal Virgins
. Livia exercised unofficial but
very real power in Rome. Eventually, Tiberius became resentful of his mother’s
political status, particularly against the idea that it was she who had given
him the throne. At the beginning of the reign he vetoed the unprecedented title
Mater Patriae (“Mother of the Fatherland”) that the Senate wanted to
bestow upon her, in the same manner in which Augustus had been named
Pater Patriae
(“Father of the Fatherland”).
(Tiberius also consistently refused the title of Pater Patriae for
himself.)

The historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio depict an overweening, even
domineering dowager, ready to interfere in Tiberius’ decisions, the most notable
instances being the case of
Urgulania
(grandmother of Claudius’s first wife
Plautia Urgulanilla
), a woman who correctly
assumed that her friendship with the empress placed her above the law, and
Munatia Plancina
, suspected of murdering
Germanicus
and saved at Livia’s entreaty. (Plancina
committed suicide in 33 AD after being accused again of murder after Livia’s
death). A notice from AD 22 records that Julia Augusta (Livia) dedicated a
statue to Augustus in the centre of Rome, placing her own name even before that
of Tiberius.

Ancient historians give as a reason for Tiberius’ retirement to
Capri
his inability to endure her any longer.
Until AD 22 there had, according to Tacitus, been “a genuine
harmony
between mother and son, or a hatred
well concealed;” Dio tells us that at the time of his accession already Tiberius
heartily loathed her. In AD 22
she had fallen ill, and Tiberius had
hastened back to Rome in order to be with her. But in AD 29 when she finally
fell ill and died, he remained on Capri, pleading pressure of work and sending
Caligula
to deliver the funeral oration.
Suetonius adds the macabre detail that “when she died… after a delay of
several days, during which he held out hope of his coming, [she was at last]
buried because the condition of the corpse made it necessary…”. Divine honours
he also vetoed, stating that this was in accord with her own instructions. Later
he vetoed all the honours the Senate had granted her after her death and
canceled the fulfillment of her will.

It was not until 13 years later, in AD 42 during the reign of her grandson
Claudius
, that all her honours were restored
and her deification finally completed. She was named Diva Augusta (The
Divine Augusta), and an elephant-drawn chariot conveyed her image to all
public games. A statue of her was set up in the temple of Augustus along with
her husband’s, races were held in her honour, and women were to invoke her name
in their sacred oaths. In 410 AD during the
Sack of Rome (410)
her ashes were scattered
when Augustus’ tomb was sacked.

Her
Villa ad Gallinas Albas
north of Rome is
currently being excavated; its famous frescoes of imaginary garden views may be
seen at
National Museum of Rome
. One of the most famous
statues of Augustus (the
Augustus of Prima Porta
) came from the grounds
of the villa.

 Livia’s
personality

While reporting various unsavoury hearsay, the ancient sources generally
portray Livia (Julia Augusta) as a woman of proud and queenly attributes,
faithful to her imperial husband, for whom she was a worthy consort, forever
poised and dignified. With consummate skill she acted out the roles of consort,
mother, widow and dowager. Dio records two of her utterances: “Once, when some
naked men met her and were to be put to death in consequence, she saved their
lives by saying that to a chaste woman such men are in no way different from
statues. When someone asked her how she had obtained such a commanding influence
over Augustus, she answered that it was by being scrupulously chaste herself,
doing gladly whatever pleased him, not meddling with any of his affairs, and, in
particular, by pretending neither to hear nor to notice the favourites of his
passion.”

With time, however, and widowhood, a haughtiness and an overt craving for
power and the outward trappings of status came increasingly to the fore. Livia
had always been a principal beneficiary of the climate of adulation that
Augustus had done so much to create, and which Tiberius despised (“a strong
contempt for honours”, Tacitus, Annals 4.37). In AD 24, typically, whenever she
attended the theatre, a seat among the Vestals was reserved for her (Annals
4.16), and this may have been intended more as an honour for the Vestals than
for her (cf. Ovid, Tristia, 4.2.13f, Epist.Ex Ponto 4.13.29f).

Livia played a vital role in the formation of her children Tiberius and
Drusus. Attention focuses on her part in the divorce of her first husband,
father of Tiberius, in 39/38 BC. It would be interesting to know her role in
this, as well as in Tiberius’ divorce of
Vipsania Agrippina
in 12 BC at Augustus’
insistence: whether it was merely neutral or passive, or whether she actively
colluded in Caesar’s wishes. The first divorce left Tiberius a fosterchild at
the house of Octavian; the second left Tiberius with a lasting emotional scar,
since he had been forced to abandon the woman he loved for dynastic
considerations.

Judea (Hebrew:
יהודה,
Standard
Yehuda
Tiberian
Yehûḏāh;
Arabic
: يهودا‎;
Greek
: Ἰουδαία;
Latin
: IVDAEA), sometimes
spelled in its original Latin forms of Judæa, Judaea or Iudaea
to distinguish it from
Judea
proper, is
a term used by historians to refer to the
Roman province
that incorporated the geographical regions of
Judea
,
Samaria
, and
Idumea
, and which extended over parts of the former regions of the
Hasmonean
and
Herodian
kingdoms of Israel. It was named after
Herod Archelaus
‘s
Tetrarchy of Judea
, of which it was an expansion, the latter name deriving
from the
Kingdom of Judah
of the 6th century BCE.

Rome’s involvement in the area dated from 63 BCE, following the end of the
Third Mithridatic War
, when Rome made
Syria
a province. In that year, after the defeat of
Mithridates VI of Pontus
, the
proconsul

Pompeius Magnus (Pompey
the Great)
sacked Jerusalem
and entered the
Jerusalem Temple
. Subsequently, during the 1st century BCE, the
Herodian Kingdom
was established as a Roman
client
kingdom
and then in 6 CE parts became a
province
of
the
Roman Empire

Judea province was the scene of unrest at its founding during the
Census of Quirinius
and several wars were fought in its history, known as
the
Jewish-Roman wars
.
The Temple was destroyed in 70
as part of the
Great Jewish Revolt
resulting in the institution of the
Fiscus Judaicus
, and after
Bar Kokhba’s revolt
(132–135 CE), the Roman Emperor
Hadrian
changed the name of the province to
Syria Palaestina
and
Jerusalem

to
Aelia Capitolina
, which certain scholars conclude was done in an attempt
to remove the relationship of the Jewish people to the region.

Relations with Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties

 

Pompey in the Temple of Jerusalemm, by
Jean Fouquet

The first intervention of Rome in the region dates from 63 BCE, following the
end of the
Third Mithridatic War
, when Rome made a province of
Syria
. After the defeat of
Mithridates VI of Pontus
,
Pompey
(Pompey
the Great) remained there to secure the area.

The region at the time was not a peaceful place. The Queen of Judaea
Salome Alexandra
had recently died and her sons,
Hyrcanus
II
and
Aristobulus II
, divided against each other in a civil war.

In 63 BCE, Aristobulus was besieged in
Jerusalem

by his brother’s armies. He sent an envoy to
Marcus Aemilius Scaurus
, Pompey’s representative in the area. Aristobulus
offered a massive bribe to be rescued, which Pompey promptly accepted.
Afterwards, Aristobulus accused Scaurus of extortion. Since Scaurus was Pompey’s
brother in law and protégée, the general retaliated by putting Hyrcanus in
charge of the kingdom as
Ethnarch

and
High Priest
, but he was denied the title of King.

When Pompey was defeated by
Julius Caesar
, Hyrcanus was succeeded by his
courtier

Antipater the Idumaean
, also known as Antipas, as the first
Roman Procurator
. In 57–55 BCE,
Aulus Gabinius
, proconsul of
Syria
, split the former
Hasmonean
Kingdom of Israel into five districts of the
Sanhedrin
.

Both Caesar and Antipater were killed in 44 BCE, and the
Idumean
Herod the Great
, Antipater’s son, was designated “King
of the Jews” by the
Roman
Senate
in 40 BCE.
He didn’t gain military control until 37 BCE. During his reign the last
representatives of the
Maccabees

were eliminated, and the great port of
Caesarea Maritima
was built. He died in 4 BCE, and his kingdom was divided
among his sons, who became
tetrarchs
(“rulers of a quarter part”). One of these quarters was Judea
corresponding to the region of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. Herod’s son
Herod Archelaus
, ruled Judea so badly that he was dismissed in 6 CE by the
Roman
emperor
Augustus
, after an appeal from his own population. Another,
Herod
Antipas
, ruled as
tetrarch
of Galilee and Perea from 4 BCE to 39 CE, being then dismissed by
Caligula
.

Judea as Roman
province

 

The Roman empire in the time of
Hadrian
(ruled 117–138 CE), showing, in western Asia, the Roman
province of Iudaea. 1
legion
deployed in 125.

Part of a series on the
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In 6 CE Judea became part of a larger Roman province, called Iudaea,
which was formed by combining
Judea proper

(biblical
Judah
) with Samaria
and Idumea (biblical
Edom).
Even though Iudaea is simply derived from the Latin for Judea,
many historians use it to distinguish the Roman province from the previous
territory and history. Iudaea province did not include
Galilee
,
Gaulanitis
(the Golan), nor
Peraea
or the
Decapolis
.
Its revenue was of little importance to the Roman treasury, but it controlled
the land and coastal sea routes to the bread basket
Egypt
and was a border province against the
Parthian Empire
because of the Jewish connections to
Babylonia

(since the
Babylonian exile
). The capital was at
Caesarea
,
not Jerusalem
,
which had been the capital for
King David
,
King Hezekiah
,
King Josiah
, the
Maccabees

and
Herod the Great
.
Quirinius

became Legate

(Governor) of
Syria
and conducted the first
Roman tax census of Syria and Iudaea
, which was opposed by the
Zealots
.
Iudaea was not a
Senatorial province
, nor exactly an
Imperial province
, but instead was a “satellite of Syria”
governed
by a prefect
who was a
knight of the equestrian order
(as was
Roman Egypt
), not a former
consul
or
praetor
of
senatorial rank
.
Pontius Pilate
was one of these prefects, from 26 to 36 CE.
Caiaphas

was one of the appointed
High Priests
of
Herod’s Temple
, being appointed by the Prefect
Valerius Gratus
in 18. Both were deposed by the Syrian Legate
Lucius Vitellius
in 36 CE.

The ‘Crisis under
Caligula
‘
(37–41) has been proposed as the first open break between Rome and the Jews.

Between 41 and 44 CE, Iudaea regained its nominal
autonomy
, when
Herod Agrippa
was made King of the Jews by the emperor
Claudius
,
thus in a sense restoring the Herodian Dynasty, though there is no indication
Iudaea ceased to be a Roman province simply because it no longer had a prefect.
Claudius had decided to allow, across the empire,
procurators
, who had been personal agents to the Emperor often serving as
provincial tax
and
finance ministers, to be elevated to governing magistrates with full state
authority to keep the peace. He elevated Iudaeas’s procurator whom he trusted to
imperial governing status because the imperial legate of Syria was not
sympathetic to the Judeans.
Following Agrippa’s death in 44 CE, the province returned to direct Roman
control for a short period. Agrippa’s son
Marcus Julius Agrippa
was designated King of the Jews in 48. He was the
seventh and last of the
Herodians
.
From 70 CE until 135 CE, Iudaea’s rebelliousness required a governing Roman
legate

capable of commanding legions. Because Agrippa II maintained loyalty to the
Empire, the Kingdom was retained until he died, either in 93/94 or 100, when the
area returned to complete, undivided
Roman
Empire
control.

Judaea was the stage of three major
rebellions against Roman rule
:

• 66–70 CE – first rebellion, followed by the destruction of
  Herod’s Temple
  and the siege of
  Jerusalem
  (see
  Great Jewish Revolt
  ,
  Josephus
  )
• 115–117 CE – second rebellion, called
  Kitos War
• 132–135 CE – third rebellion,
  Bar Kokhba’s revolt

Following the suppression of Bar Kokhba’s revolt, the emperor
Hadrian
changed the name of the province to
Syria Palaestina
and Jerusalem became
Aelia Capitolina
which
Hayim Hillel Ben-Sasson
states was done to erase the historical ties of the
Jewish people to the region.

Under Diocletian
(284-305) the region was divided into Palaestina Prima
(Judea, Samaria, Idumea, Peraea and the coastal plain with Caesarea as capital),
Palaestina Secunda (Galilee, Decapolis, Golan with Beth-shean as capital)
and Palaestina Tertia (the Negev with Petra as capital).

List
of Governors (AD 6–135)

See also

• Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC)