The article reviews the share that Vespasian had in the decoration of the Temple of Osiris Nesmeti on Elephantine. It is considered in the context of a report of Cassius Dio (LXVI 8, 1) who associated that ruler’s entry into Alexandria with an exceptional rise of flooding waters and also in view of the connection of that report with the Egyptian royal ideology which identified the king with the Nile and its flooding. The Vespasian’s decoration of the Temple of Osiris Nesmeti is analyzed in the light of representations of Nilus on the monumental staircase leading to the temple and of the stele of Florence (no. 4021).
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.
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