The Female Figure on the IVDAEA RECEPTA Aureus

Abstract

The posture of the woman depicted on the reverse of the of the unique IVDAEA RECEPTA
coin (Gambash, Gitler and Cotton 2013) is not of a Jewish captive, as proposed in the editio
princeps of the coin. Many elements are present in the iconography of the figure that are found
solely associated with the Roman goddess Salus in the guise of Hygieia. A history of the political
use of the image of Salus shows that Vespasian borrowed elements from the last century of the
republic to present himself as the savior and healer (salus) of the state.