★ Ex Roma III, 2012 ★

Septimius Severus AV Aureus. Rome, AD 207. SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right / RESTITVTOR VRBIS, Roma seated left, holding Victory and sceptre, shield behind. RIC 288; C. 605; BMCRE 358; Calicó 2529; Hill 840. 7.35g, 21mm, 6h.

Very Rare. Fleur De Coin - struck on a broad flan and with a beautiful mint lustre.

From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction III, 31 March 2012, lot 503 (hammer: £42,000).

Septimius Severus was credited with restoring stability to the Roman Empire after the tumultuous reign of the emperor Commodus and the civil wars that erupted in the wake of his murder, and by the time this coin was struck he had enlarged the Empire in the east and strengthened the southern borders through the expansion of the Limes Tripolitanus, a frontier zone of defensive forts in north Africa. The improved security of the Empire enabled Septimius to undertake restorative works in Rome itself, the theme of this coin reverse.

Roma, protecting goddess of the city of Rome, is here represented referencing Septimius’ beneficent rule as founder of peace and restorer of the city. Septimius is known to have had constructed the ‘Septizodium’, an interesting if unexplained building, at the place where the Via Appia ascends the Palatine Hill. Ammianus Marcellinus erroneously credits the building to Marcus Aurelius (15.7.3), and implies that it was intended as a nymphaeum of imposing size and importance.