Image Details
Courtesy Hanan Eshel
This coin discovered in a Judean desert cave, depicting Emperor Hadrian ceremonially plowing the borders of his newest colony, may resolve the long-standing question of when he renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina: Was it before the Jewish Revolt, as the Roman historian Dio Cassius records, and therefore a provocation for the Jews to rebel, or was it after, as part of an imperial celebration of the successful suppression of the rebels?