As Domitian - Victory against the Chatti

DOMITIAN. Æ As. Rome, 84 AD. Obv. IMP CAES DOMITIAN AVG GERM COS X Laureated head right with aegis Rev. Victoria walking right, holding a Legionary standard (Eagle) between S-C. Cohen 463 (5 F) Type belonging to the serie struck to commemorate the victory in the campaign against the Chatti, a German tribe, started in 83 AD. Domitian harboured an inferiority complex toward his brother and father. In the matter of military glory, the jealousy was acute: his brother had led the siege of Jerusalem, and his father had led most of the war in Judaea, and had won much glory in his earlier years, including a triumphia ornamentalia for his command in Claudius’ invasion of Britain. Domitian had always been eager for a military command, and Suetonius (Domitian 1) tells us that when his father established his government in Rome, Domitian greatly wanted glory so badly that he "…planned a quite unnecessary expedition into Gaul and Germany, from which his father’s friends managed to dissuade him". In actuality, his skills in the arts of war were enviable: he is said to have been able to shoot an arrow between the spread fingers of a hand without fail. His first campaign – which this well-composed issue celebrates – was against the Chatti in 83. Domitian led a perfectly successful campaign in which the Chatti were roundly defeated and the Roman border was extended beyond the Rhine. In honour of this victory Domitian was hailed Germanicus, won a triumph, and even had an arch erected. [NAC]