Vespasian - Sow with piglets (S2651)

Vespasian, 69-79. Denarius (Silver, 18 mm, 3.38 g, 5 h), Rome, July 77-December 78. CAESAR VE[SPASIA]NVS AVG Laureate head of Vespasian to right. Rev. IMP XIX The Lavinian Sow standing left with three piglets, two standing below her, [one behind her]. BMC 212. Cohen 213. RIC 982. Good fine.

From the Joseph Markowitz Collection (1897-1981), brought to Israel in 1949 and kept in the family ever since. 

According to the Aeneid (3.389-393), the great Trojan seer, Helenos, prophesized that Aeneas would found a city on the spot where a huge, milk-white sow was suckling thirty piglets in a grove, a prophecy later repeated by Tiberinus (Aeneid 8.42-48). Indeed, upon reaching Italy, Aeneas would eventually find the sow, whom he dutifully sacrificed to Juno. In the same spot he would found the city of Lavinium, named for his wife, Lavinia, the daughter of king Latinus. His son, Ascanius, would later found Alba Longa in the area, named after the white ('alba' in Latin) sow. This city in turn was the birthplace of Romulus and Remus, who would of course go on to found Rome itself, thus linking the city to the illustrious Trojan past.