Domitian and Domitia: the divine child: Apoc.
12,1-6
Domitia's child was born in 7 3 and died in 83. Domitia was
described after this event as mother of gods on coins depicting her as Ceres, Demeter,
and Cybele. It is interesting to compare the iconography surrounding this event
with Apoc. 12, 1-6 . Here, essentially, there is a heavenly sign (και σημειον μεγα ωφθη εν τω ουρανω) . There is
"a woman clothed with the sun (γυνη περιβεβλημενη τον ηλιον) and the moon
under her feet (και η σελενη υποκατω των ποδων αυτης)
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars (και επι της κεφαλης αυτης στεφανος
αστερων δωδεκα)."
(12,1) She is pursued by the seven-headed dragon, whose tail sweeps away one
third of the stars, and who intends to devour her child, destined to rule the
nations (2-4). Then "she brought forth a male child (και ετεκεν υιον αρσεν) , destined to shepherd
all the nations with a rod of iron (ος μελλει ποιμαινειν παντα τα εθνη εν ραβδω σιδηρα) . And the child
was snatched away to God (και ηρπασθη το τεκνον αυτης προς τον θεον) and to his
throne (και
προς
τον
θρονον αυτου.)."
In a coin of A.D. 92, after her restoration to favour, Domitia is depicted
draped and veiled, and seated on a throne extending her hand to touch a small
boy. He holds in his left hand the sceptre of world dominion whilst blessing
the world with his right. The inscription reads: DIVI CAESAR[IS] MATRI (Plate
21). The obverse side of the coin depicts Domitia draped with her hair tied up
at the back and raised in a dome at the front with elaborate coils (Plate 20). Domitia's
child thus shows, with his sceptre and globe, close correspondence with ος μελλει ποιμανειν
παντα τα εθνη εν ραβδω σιδηρα.
Furthermore the child has died and become one with the imperial family
in deification, just like the child of the Apoc. 12,5: και ηρπασθη το τεκνον αυτης προς τον θεον. A further
earlier, gold coin of A.D. 83 bears the inscription: DIVUS CAESAR IMP DOMITIANI
F[ILIUS]. Here the naked infant, divus Caesar is depicted as baby Jupiter
seated on a globe with seven stars around him (Plate 23). The obverse of the
coin is inscribed DOMITIA AVGVSTA IMP[ERATORIS] DOMIT[IANI] (Plate 22). Thus
in the image of Apoc. 12,1 we find the infant's circle or crown of seven
stars interchanged with those of the woman who has επι της κεφαλης αυτης στεφανος
αστερων δωδεκα.
The theme of the seven stars as an attribute of divinity appears also
in the letter to Ephesus (2,1: ταδε λεγει ο κρατων τους επτα αστερας εν τη δεξια αυτου). Martial's poem
describes the prince as moving through the air and playing with the seven
stars, which indicate the seven planets. The theme of a divinised emperor being
sent to the stars is typical of the Flavian dynasty, as we can see from Martial
(Epig. 9, 101,22 and 14, 124) or Juvenal (Sat. XIII, 46-49).
Regarding the association of the woman with the sun and the moon
in Apoc. 12,1, we have the image of Aeternitas, standing holding the
heads of the sun and the moon in her hands, as a special mark of Flavian
coinage, with the inscription AETERNITATI AVGVST. S.C. (Plate 25). Silus
Atticus describes Domitian when finally divinised giving forth rays near his
son.1 1 Again Statius (Silvae 4,1, 3-4) describes him on his entry to
his seventeenth consulship (A.D. 91) as: "And he is rising (atque
oritur) with the new sun (cum sole novo), with the lofty stars (cum
grandibus astris), himself shining more brightly (clarius ipse nitens) and
more greatly than
the morning star (et maior Eoo)." The "morning star (τον αστερα τον προωινον) in Apoc. 2,28;
22,16 becomes a description of Christ or Christ's gift. (Allen Brent, The Imperial Cult and the Development
of Church Order: Concepts and Images of Authority in Paganism and Early
Christianity Before the Age of Cyprian [Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae
45; Leiden: Brill, 1999], 166-68)
The following are plates 20, 21, 22, 23, and 25 referenced above:
