A Rare Septimius Aureus

Septimius Severus AV Aureus. Rome, AD 194. L • SEPT • SEV • PERT • AVG IMP III, laureate head to right / DIS • AVSPICIB TR P • II •, Hercules standing to left, holding club and with lion skin draped over arm, Bacchus at his right, also standing to left, holding oinochoe over panther; COS II P P in exergue. RIC IV 31; C. 114; BMCRE 63; Calicó 2446.

NGC graded AU★ 5/5 - 4/5 (#3987009-101). Rare.

Ex Heritage World Coin Auctions, NYINC Signature Sale 3097, 10 January 2022, lot 30099; Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Triton XII, 6 January 2009, lot 663.

The tutelary deities of Septimius Severus’ home city of Lepcis Magna (also spelt Leptis) were the Phoenician gods Shadaphra and Melqart, who were equated with Liber Pater or Bacchus, and Hercules respectively. Their importance to the city is attested by several inscriptions there, their prominence in Lepcitanian sculpture, the fact that their temples occupied central locations within the old forum, and the joint appearance of both Liber Pater and Hercules (or their attributes) on the coinage of Lepcis Magna from the first century BC to the first century AD.

That these gods were important to Severus on a personal level is also evident, as they clearly served as the tutelary deities of his regime, appearing on several other coin issues during his reign, and on the provincial coinage in his sons’ names. On an extremely rare series issued in 204, the two gods are specifically referred to as the ‘Di Patrii’; A. Peck (University of Warwick, 1 March 2015) cohesively argues that since “in literature also, the phrase di patrii appears to have been used almost exclusively in relation to the gods of Rome, particularly with regards to the Penates that were according to legend brought to Italy from Troy by Aeneas”, the issue is intended to demonstrate the “equal importance that was placed upon local and imperial identities, proudly displaying the emperor’s attachment to his local patria, whilst also honouring the religious elements that were at the heart of Rome’s conceptualisation of patria”.

However, J. Rantala (The Ludi Saeculares of Septimius Severus: The Ideologies of a New Roman Empire, 2017) suggests that the appearance of these gods is closely connected to Septimius’ sons Caracalla and Geta, to whom the deities were closely linked in imperial propoganda in the guise of the patron deities for the young princes. Indeed, on the provincial coinage in the name of Caracalla reverse types of Hercules dominate, while on those of Geta, Liber or Bacchus appear with great frequency. Similarly, on a parallel issue of aurei of extreme rarity the reverse type for Caracalla portrays Hercules feasting (Leu 93, 68), whereas Bacchus and Ariadne, thronged by the god’s company of maenads and satyrs, were chosen for Geta (Leu 87, 66). Thus to Rantala the reverse of the present aureus is associated with the young princes: “the deities represented the future of the dynasty and the continuation of the empire”. More likely than not, the reverse meaning is multi-faceted like the gods themselves and serves the combined role of honouring the gods of Septimius’ home and hearth, promoting their standing throughout the empire, and helping to build the foundations of the formal association between these gods and his sons by calling upon Hercules and Liber Pater in their role as divine heralds of peace and prosperity to mark the beginning of a new golden age.