A Rare Temple Mount Coin Featuring the Portrait of the Emperor Who Repealed the Harsh Decrees Against Jews After Tisha B’Av 135 CE

On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would not enter the Land [of Israel]; and the Temple was destroyed the first time, and the second time; and Beitar was captured; and the city [of Jerusalem] was plowed. (Ta’anit 4: 6)

The Ninth of Av in the year 135 CE marked the end of the Bar Kochba revolt, after which the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, forbidden to bury the dead of Beitar (the central stronghold of the revolt), and severe religious decrees were imposed on them. However, four years later, most of these decrees were revoked, by the very man whose portrait appears on a coin recently discovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

A few weeks ago, a nearly unrecognizable heavily encrusted coin about 17mm in diameter was discovered by Ariel Mishali, a visitor to the Temple Mount Sifting Project.  Haim Shaham, a staff archaeologist of the Sifting Project and a numismatics expert, recognized the potential significance of this find, and it was immediately sent to be cleaned and identified. It was soon revealed to be a very rare bronze coin minted under the Romans in the city of Aelia Capitolina (the renamed pagan city of Jerusalem) during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE). Antoninus Pius succeeded the infamous Emperor Hadrian known for his sweeping prohibition of Jewish practices and his brutal repression of the Bar Kokhba rebellion in 132–136 CE.

The Coin

This coin is considered rare, with only about a dozen or so other examples known to exist. The obverse of the coin depicts the bust of the emperor facing right, draped in a tunic and adorned with a laurel wreath. Surrounding the bust is the inscription “IMP ANTONINVS AVG PP” — Emperor Antoninus, Augustus, Father of the Country.

The reverse of the coin bears the image of three robed nymphs, with an inscription below reading “CAC”, an abbreviation of Colonia Aelia Capitolina (the new name given to Jerusalem by Hadrian). The nymph figures may allude to the Nymphaeum, a fountain shrine dedicated to nymphs, which according to the 7^th century Chronicon Paschale was built by Hadrian in this newly rededicated pagan city. The worship of the pagan goddess Venus (or Aphrodite) and her attendant nymphs was popular among the Roman legionnaires stationed in the city.

As soon as the Jews learned of the change of rulers, they sent a delegation, led by R. Judah b. Shamu’a, to Rome to negotiate for improved conditions (Meg. Ta’anit, xii.). On the fifteenth of Av (August 138 or 139), the new emperor permitted the burial of the Jewish soldiers who had fallen in battle against the Romans during the Bar Kokhba rebellion, and whose burial had been prohibited under severe penalty (Yer. Ta’anit 4, 5). Half a year later (March 139 or 140) Antoninus repealed Hadrian’s edicts — which had prevented the Jews from practicing their religion — on the condition that they would not receive proselytes (Meg. Ta’anit, xii.; “Digesta” of Modestinus, xlviii. 8, 11). The Jews who had fled to foreign countries to escape Hadrian’s persecutions gradually returned to their homes (though they were still officially barred from entering Jerusalem). The intellectual stagnation of the Jewish people came to an end; and the disciples of Rabbi Akiva founded a new center of Jewish culture at Usha in the Galilee.

Antoninus Pius and the Jews

Born in the year 86, Emperor Antoninus Pius ruled from Hadrian’s death in 138 until his own death 23 years later in 161. The Jewish Encyclopedia describes him as a just and humane emperor, who was a blessing to the Jews, particularly those in Palestine (as Judea was renamed by Hadrian). The religious persecutions of Hadrian, and his “scorched earth” policy during the Bar Kokhba rebellion, had devastated the country, depopulated the cities, and made the intellectual development of the Jews impossible. Had these conditions persisted, there might have been an end to the Jewish people in the Roman Empire.

As soon as the Jews learned of the change of rulers, they sent a delegation, led by R. Judah b. Shamu’a, to Rome to negotiate for improved conditions (Meg. Ta’anit, xii.). On the fifteenth of Av (August 138 or 139), the new emperor permitted the burial of the Jewish soldiers who had fallen in battle against the Romans during the Bar Kokhba rebellion, and whose burial had been prohibited under severe penalty (Yer. Ta’anit 4, 5). Half a year later (March 139 or 140) Antoninus repealed Hadrian’s edicts — which had prevented the Jews from practicing their religion — on the condition that they would not receive proselytes (Meg. Ta’anit, xii.; “Digesta” of Modestinus, xlviii. 8, 11). The Jews who had fled to foreign countries to escape Hadrian’s persecutions gradually returned to their homes (though they were still officially barred from entering Jerusalem). The intellectual stagnation of the Jewish people came to an end; and the disciples of Rabbi Akiva founded a new center of Jewish culture at Usha in the Galilee.

Antoninus Pius and the Temple Mount

Our knowledge of the Temple Mount during the time of Antoninus Pius is limited, but a few hints can be found in Roman and Byzantine works of history, chronicles of early pilgrims, and rabbinical sources.

Several historical sources mention that Emperor Hadrian, who rededicated Jerusalem as the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina, built a temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad — the gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. While this temple was said to have been “in the place of” the destroyed Jewish Temple (Cassius Dio), it is unclear whether this means the exact location of the destroyed temple or simply a replacement for it. The ambiguity has led to debate among scholars regarding the location of the Capitoline Temple, with some believing it was on the Temple Mount and others placing it in the western part of the city near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The chronicle of the Pilgrim of Bordeaux (333 CE) doesn’t mention any remains of such a pagan temple near the sacred rock. Instead, he testified that Jews could be seen visiting the rock to mourn the Temple’s destruction, and that two statues had been erected at that location.

Although the Pilgrim of Bordeaux identified both as statues of Hadrian, an inscription found on a stone block in secondary use near the Double Gate in the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount appears to indicate that this stone is a dedication base for a statue of Antoninus Pius. At the very least, the dedication stone implies that there was indeed a statue of Antoninus Pius somewhere in the vicinity of the Temple Mount.

It is fitting that on the Ninth of Av, the day on which the Jewish people mourn the destruction of their Temple in Jerusalem, we present this coin, minted by Antoninus Pius. As the successor of Hadrian, the Roman emperor who completed the destruction of Jerusalem that began in 70 CE under Emperor Vespasian, paganizing the city and rededicating it as Aelia Capitolina. Antoninus Pius ended the downward spiral of destruction, restored the right of the Jews to practice their religion and rekindled the hope of the Jewish people for a better future.

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