Judaea, The Jewish War. Æ 'Shekel' (6.84 g), 66-70 CE. Gamla, ca. February-August 67 CE. Crude uncertain legend around (either Paleo-Hebrew or Aramaic), omer cup. Reverse: Crude uncertain circular legend around (either Paleo-Hebrew or Aramaic), without design. Hendin 1372; Deutsch 2. TJC 217. Extremely Rare. Nearly identical in style and quality to Bromberg II, lot 390 and superior to the Deutsch plate example. Fine. Value $15,000 - UP
In AD 66, frustration with the excesses of Roman rule, conflicts with Greek neighbors, and the struggle between Jewish religious and political factions led to rioting in Caesarea and Jerusalem. The riots quickly developed into an open Jewish rebellion against the Roman procurator of Judaea, Gessius Florus, and his superior, Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria. Gallus assembled an army to repress the revolt and was poised to besiege Jerusalem when his forces were slaughtered in a rebel ambush at Beth Horon. This signal success inspired the leaders of the rebellion to form an independent provisional government in Jerusalem and to assign regional commanders to defend against the inevitable Roman invasion that was to come once the shock of Beth Horon had worn off. Yosef ben Matityahu, more widely known as the future historian of the Jewish Revolt Ti. Flavius Josephus, was given command of the forces in Galilee and Golan, but his authority was challenged by John of Gischala, a leader of the radical Zealot faction.

Reprisals for the defeat of Gallus began in earnest in AD 67, the second year of the Jewish Revolt (AD 66-72). The Roman general Ti. Flavius Vespasianus was placed in command of operations to crush the rebels and started his bloody work in Galilee and Golan. Ignoring the will of the Judean provisional government, the elites of Galilean cities like Sepphoris and Tiberias surrendered without a fight. The town of Gamla (named for its location on a steep hill resembling the hump of a camel) probably would have done the same—it initially resisted the developing Jewish Revolt—if it had not been flooded with rebels seeking refuge from other parts of Galilee conquered by Vespasian. Josephus hastily ordered the erection of walls between the houses at the perimeter of the town in order to make it defensible against the Roman advance. At last on October 12, AD 67, Vespasian arrived before Gamla with a force of 60,000 men, according to Josephus. The defenders numbered only 9,000 and this is probably an exaggeration. Faced with the odds against them, the rebels would have been wise to surrender, but instead continued to resist with the unreasonable hope that aid would come from the Jews of the Babylonian Diaspora and the Parthian Empire.

The defenders of Gamla initially repulsed Roman attempts to construct a siege ramp, but eventually it was built and the walls were breached in three places. Entering the town, the Romans suffered greatly in the cramped hand-to-hand street fighting that followed. Many sought a superior position from which to attack the rebels and made their way to the roofs of the houses, but these collapsed under their weight. The loss of life incurred during the storming of Gamla caused the Romans to withdraw, but they returned a few days later and took the town. The surviving inhabitants and rebels were killed by the victorious Romans or died from injuries sustained while trying to escape through a nearby ravine. Gamla was destroyed and never rebuilt.

The present bronze coin (a token shekel?) is a memorial of the siege and the desperate resistance of Gamla’s defenders. Archaeological finds show that these coins were struck as a kind of emergency money at Gamla in imitation of the silver shekels struck by the provisional government in Jerusalem. Despite the crudeness born of necessity, it is still possible to make out the chalice (the Omer Cup of the Temple) obverse type regularly found on the silver shekels of the Jewish Revolt, however the expected pomegranates of the silver shekel is absent reverse. Due to the crudeness of the legends they have been read differently by different scholars. There is even some disagreement over whether they are written in paleo-Hebrew or Aramaic script. Readings have included "for the redemption of / holy Jerusalem," mimicking the legends of the silver shekels; "Gamla [year] 2 / holy Jerusalem"; and "y[ear]…to the Jewish People." This extremely rare coin (Hendin reports only 2-4 in private collections worldwide while the Menorah Coin Project is aware of only 9 specimens in total), is an absolute must for serious collectors of Jewish Revolt coins.