Aegyptiaca Vespasiani. Nilus on Vespasian’s Alexandrian Coins Evidence for the Tradition of the Legitimization of Power

During the first three years of Vespasian’s reign, coins which depicted Nilus bust were minted in Alexandria. Some scholars relate these representations to the reported by Cassius Dio (LXVI 8, 1) sudden exceptional Nile flooding which took place after the emperor’s arrival in Alexandria. However, the dates of both events are disputable. It seems that Nilus bust on the coins is rather an expression of Roman emperors’ complying with requirements of the tradition which identified the monarch with the renewed Nile.