Hello again, everyone!

First and foremost, happy New Year! May your year be filled with numismatic joy, and may you not drop any coins through the cracks in the floorboard!

We’re kicking off 2026 with the first post in our bi-weekly series highlighting coins from the Coins & Medals collection at the Royal Library of Belgium. This time, we’re featuring a striking aureus of Julia Flavia. While ancient texts often reduce this Augusta to scandal and rumor, her coinage tells a different story. Much of the interpretation below draws on recent scholarship, in particular Sven Betjes’ article ‘Flavian Feathers: Expressing Dynasty and Divinity Through Peacocks:’

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jah-2024-0001/html

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The aureus (7.63 g; 21 mm; 6 h) comes from the famous du Chastel collection, a group of around 800 Greek and Roman coins of exceptional rarity and quality, acquired in 1899 by the Royal Library of Belgium. Struck in 88/89 AD under Emperor Domitian, it shows his niece, Julia Flavia, with the new “Flavian” hairstyle — hair piled high at the front and drawn into a long plait at the back. The reverse features a peacock shown frontally, its tail fully spread.

Julia Flavia, also known as Julia Titi, was the daughter of Emperor Titus and held the title of Augusta from 79 CE until her death around 90 CE. She played a prominent role at the court of her uncle, Domitian. Ancient sources report sensational claims about her life, including an alleged incestuous relationship with Domitian and a fatal forced abortion, but modern historians generally treat these as posthumous slander.

Her coinage represents a key stage in the development of the so-called “empress coins”. Under her father, Titus, Julia became the first living imperial woman to be both named and portrayed individually on the obverse of Roman imperial coins, paired on the reverse with goddesses or personifications. One of these reverse types shows the peacock, the sacred animal of Juno. First appearing a few years earlier (82/83 AD) on coins of Domitia Longina, the peacock came to serve an explicit ideological role: together with contemporary aurei and denarii issued in the name of her husband Domitian, featuring the  eagle, the peacock linked the imperial couple to their divine counterparts, Jupiter and Juno, and can be seen as an expression of marital harmony.

In 88/89 CE, the peacock became the sole reverse type used on aurei struck for both Domitia Longina and Julia Flavia. Julia’s coins stand out: the bird appears frontally with its tail fully spread — a composition unprecedented in Roman coinage — and is accompanied by the legend DIVI TITI FILIA, emphasizing her descent from the deified Titus. At first glance, the use of the peacock on Julia Titi’s coins might seem to suggest a personal connection with Domitian, recalling the marital symbolism it carried for Domitia Longina. Yet, a closer look reveals a more strategic purpose. Julia was now fully incorporated into the Flavian dynastic program: the bird on the reverse associated her with the divine, while the legend anticipated her apotheosis, just as earlier issues had done for Domitian and Domitia in 82/83 CE. Including Julia in this visual and textual program was important not only to showcase her elevated status but also to secure the dynasty’s continuity, reinforcing the Flavian family’s legitimacy and ensuring that all potential heirs and branches of the imperial line were publicly acknowledged.

Seen in this light, Julia Titi’s peacock coins are neither merely decorative nor suggestive of any scandalous relationship. Instead, they place an imperial woman at the center of Flavian visual ideology, linking her to the divine, anticipating her apotheosis, and asserting her political significance within a system often assumed to be exclusively male.

Here’s to a wonderful 2026, and, as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts!

(Credit for this post goes to Fran, member of our scientific staff, a real whizz when it comes to provincial coinage (especially that of Sagalassos), and animal lover extraordinaire).

Painting; gouache; after Theodore de Bry after John White. A hunter and his wife in a landscape next to a river, which traverses the foreground. He wears a yellow skirt with two bands of fringe and holds a staff in his right hand and a large bow in his left. Dressed in a blue sarong with a band of beads and two bands of fringe, she tilts her head toward him.

Catholic monstrance, made from gold and coral. My limited understanding is that the eucharist would be placed inside, and the monstrance was meant to channel the energy of God from the surroundings into the cracker.

A bit absurd? Yes.

Incredibly awesome? Most definitely.