Septimius Severus, 193-211. Aureus (Gold, 20 mm, 7.22 g, 12 h), Laodicea ad Mare (?), 198. L SEP SEVERVS PER AVG P M IMP XI Laureate and cuirassed bust of Septimius Severus to right, the breastplate decorated with a gorgoneion. Rev. PAR AR AD TR P VI•COS II P P Victory advancing right, holding wreath in her right hand and palm over her left shoulder with her left. BMC -. Calicó -. Cohen -. RIC -. Apparently unpublished and of great numismatic and historical interest. A beautiful aureus with a very impressive military bust type and a new reverse type for this mint. Good extremely fine.


This previously unrecorded aureus of Septimius Severus is of great interest in several respects. Both its obverse and reverse legends have hitherto been known only in silver, while the reverse type with Victory advancing right appears to be entirely new within this eastern series. The attribution of the series itself remains a matter of debate. Traditionally assigned by RIC and BMC to Laodicea ad Mare, largely on the historical assumption that Severus transferred imperial minting activity away from Antioch after that city’s support for Pescennius Niger, these issues have more recently been reassigned by the British Museum to Antioch ad Orontem; the precise location of the workshop, however, cannot yet be regarded as definitively settled.

The coin’s magnificent heroic cuirassed bust and emphatically military reverse belong to the same carefully constructed message. The abbreviated legend PAR AR AD recalls Severus’ titles Parthicus Arabicus and Parthicus Adiabenicus, assumed after the eastern campaigns of 195, when he moved against the northern Mesopotamian powers in the aftermath of his victory over Niger. The exact geographical reference of Arabicus remains debated, while Adiabenicus refers to operations against Adiabene beyond the Tigris. By 198 Severus had returned to the East on a much larger campaign against the Parthians, culminating in the capture of Ctesiphon and the assumption of the grander title Parthicus Maximus.

The continued use of the earlier PAR AR AD formula on this aureus is therefore significant: it links the victories of 195 with the far greater successes of 197-198 and presents Severus’ eastern wars as a continuous sequence of triumphs. Paired with Victory herself, the legend turns this previously unknown gold issue into an unusually explicit expression of the emperor’s developing eastern victory ideology.