From IVDAEA CAPTA to LIVON(ia) POLOT(ia)Q(ue) RECEPTA. The reception of the famous reverse of Vespasian coins in Renaissance Poland.

The main goal of the paper is an attempt to find specific models for Stephen Báthory’s medals with the reverse LIVON(ia) POLOT(ia)Q(ue) RECEPTA and to precise the general opinion, repeated from early 17th century, that the engraver borrowed the appearance of his specimen from a Roman coin of emperors Vespasian and /or Titus. An analysis of the iconography and the inscriptions layout suggests that there were Vespasian’s sestertii RIC II2 161–162 with the mirror-reversed picture or figures from Titus’ sestertii RIC II2 150–153 which had an impact on the reverse of the Polish king’s medal. The paper presents also the medal as a part of propaganda actions of the Polish court after the Truce of Jam Zapolski in 1582, because at the same time panegyrics Gratulationum triumphalium ex Moscoviticis orationes III by Andreas Patricius Nidecki and De bello Moscovitico commentariorum libri sex by Reinhold Heideinstein were published.