David M. Jacobson
ELECTRUM, Volume 26, 2019, pp. 73 - 96
https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.19.004.11207This article examines the motifs on the coins struck in Judaea under the auspices of local Roman governors (prefects and procurators) between the dismissal of the ethnarch, Herod Archelaus, in 6 CE and the eve of the First Jewish Revolt which broke out in 66 CE. Although the governors were only designated by the title procurator from the mid-first century onwards, this series of coins is conventionally referred to as “procuratorial.” All are bronzes minted in Jerusalem in a single denomination, generally identified as the prutah, and bear aniconic motifs. Because they carry year dates, we know that these coins were issued fairly sporadically and the possible reasons for this are reviewed. The coin types are analysed and their respective origins and meanings identified. An attempt is made to assess the extent to which their motifs support the picture presented in the literary sources of the changing political climate in both in Judaea and Rome over the period in which these coins were minted.
David M. Jacobson
ELECTRUM, Volume 29, 2022, pp. 171 - 196
https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.22.012.15782Without having any contemporaneous account of the Bar Kokhba Revolt comparable to the writings of Josephus that describe the First Jewish Revolt, our knowledge about many aspects of the later uprising is rather sketchy. The publication of Roman military diplomas and the remarkable series of documents recovered from caves in the Judaean Desert, along with other major archaeological findings, has filled in just some of missing details. This study is devoted to a reexamination of the rebel coinage. It has highlighted the importance of the numismatic evidence in helping to elucidate the religious ideology that succoured the rebellion and shaped its leadership.