BACCHIVS IVDAEVS: A Denarius Commemorating Pompey's Victory over Judea

James M. Scott investigates the Jewish and Greco-Roman background of a conceptually enigmatic denarius minted in Rome in 55 BCE, on the obverse of which appears a camel, in front of which a male figure kneels on his right leg, extending a branch in his right hand; the legend reads: BACCHIVS IVDAEVS. Scott's study argues that the oft-suggested connection between Aristobulus' gift of the golden vine and the Bacchius Iudaeus denarius does merit further investigation. It is shown that the Latin inscription refers to the god Bacchus/Dionysus via an interpretatio Romana and is an expression of Pompey`s Dionysian pretensions.