This has been a fascinating debate to watch evolve. At every turn I anticipated one of the discussants would bring
Meshorer and
his seminal
work on the coin series into the debate. However, I was disappointed to see that it did not happen. There is probably no single
numismatist that has studied the
history and coinage of
Aelia Capitolina more than Ya'akov
Meshorer and
his 1989
work on the coin series remains the definitive reference. I will take the
liberty to summarize
his view on some of your previous dialogue.
"The most controversial problem concerning
Aelia Capitolina is the date of its foundation. In the past, scholars tended for various reasons to disregard Dio Cassius' account of this event. Dio wrote 'At Jerusalem, he (
Hadrian) founded a city in place of the one which
had been razed to the ground, naming it
Aelia Capitolina, and on the site of the temple of the god he raised a new temple to Jupiter'. Dio goes on commenting that the founding of
Aelia Capitolina was the reason for the outbreak of the
Bar-Kochba War. In the past historians preferred Eusebius' account, who maintained that
Aelia Capitolina was founded by the
Romans in 136 CE, after the suppression of the
Bar-Kochba revolt. Eusebius explains the founding of the city as a divine punishment."
Meshorer goes on to conclude, "The foundation of the city could have taken place either during Hadrian's visit to
Judaea in 130/131 CE, or immediately after 135 CE, when the war was over; another possibility would be to place it during the
Bar-Kochba War. We have already shown elsewhere that
hoards of
Bar-Kochba coins, undoubtedly buried during the war, included coins of
Aelia Capitolina (the founder
types). This proves beyond any doubt that the city was founded before the war was over, and most probably before it started."
Meshorer cites Hadrian's visit to the
area (130/131 CE) which is commemorated on
Roman Imperial
types ("ADVENTI JUDAEAE") as well as coins minted in Gaza with the expression "visit" in Greek.
Concerning the timing of the
Aelia mint,
Meshorer concludes, "We believe that as soon as the city was founded (130/131 CE) it began to
mint coins." As for Benito's query regarding regarding the
legionary standard on the
Aelia founder
types,
Meshorer states, "So far, unfortunately, not a single coin has been found on which the lettering on the
standard is clearly legible." On a personal note, of the 36 specimens of this coin I have been able to study, I have never seen one that is clear enough to assess the
legionary reference. However, given the commonality of
Legio X Fretensis (tenth legion)
countermarks in the region at this time as well as the numerous
Aelia types that occur later in the series with clear 10th legion
symbols (
Meshorer 4, 30, 31, 32, 34, 132, 169, and 170) one could conjecture that the
standard present on Hadrian's founders coin would read "LXF".
Lastly, in reference to the
overstrike...I would defer to David
Hendin on the matter. I have examined almost 1000 coins from
Aelia Capitolina and never seen one that was an
overstrike or
overstruck.
I recognize my remarks far from clear up the matter, but I
hope that some of the debate can be set aside until more coins are found or additional archeological evidence is able to add clarity to the discussion.