Septimius Severus AV Aureus. Rome, AD 207. SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head to right / RESTITVTOR VRBIS, Roma seated to left on shield, holding palladium and sceptre. RIC IV 288; BMCRE 358; Hill 840; Calicó 2529. 6.76g, 21mm, 6h.

Good Extremely Fine; lustrous metal. Rare.

Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd, Auction XIX, 26-27 October 2021, lot 830;
Ex Baldwin's Auctions Ltd - Dmitry Markov Coins & Medals - M&M Numismatics Ltd, The New York Sale XXXIV, 6 January 2015, lot 619 (hammer: USD 22,500).

Septimius Severus was credited with restoring stability to the Roman Empire after the turbulent reign of Commodus and the civil wars that erupted in the wake of the emperor's murder. 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 that secured the agricultural base of the empire against raids from the desert nomads of the Sahara.

The improved security of the empire enabled Severus to undertake restorative works in Rome itself, the theme of this reverse type. Roma, personification of Rome, is portrayed here as a direct reference to Severus' having restored peace and prosperity to the city, which was marked in the landscape by the building of monuments such as the Triumphal Arch celebrating the successful conclusion of the war against Parthia, and the Septizodium, a building of no known practical purpose but which Ammianus Marcellinus (XV, 7, 3) is understood to have noted as 'a popular place', though the sentence is ambiguous.