★ Extremly rare Circus Maximus ★

Septimius Severus AR Denarius 3,10gr. Rome, AD 206. SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right / LAETITIA TEMPORVM, the spina of the Circus Maximus decorated as a ship facing left, with the turning posts at its prow and stern, a sail mounted on the central obelisk, and the spina’s other monuments visible in between; around the ship, four quadrigas racing left; below, seven animals: an ostrich at left and bear at right; between them a lion and a lioness chasing a wild ass and a panther attacking a bison. RIC 274; BMC 343. Very Rare - R2. Very fine. This very rare type commemorates the chariot races and animal hunt which took place on the last day of Septimius Severus’ Ludi Saeculares in AD 204, as described in the inscriptional acts of those games found in Rome in the 1870s. Dio Cassius describes that the spina of the Circus Maximus was fitted out as a ship from where the animals came, and around which the chariot racing took place. This design was repeated in later years by Caracalla and Geta.