Septimius September!

It looks like they have just attributed it as a standard COS II issue and not really read the obverse legend properly. I have notified them a couple of times but have sort of given up.

 

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We have explored the Moneta standing type previously and I held back from sharing any of my Moneta seated types so have decided to share them now.

As the the standing type the reverse legends shorten over time.

AVG II CO - MONETAE AVG - I have two reverse dies paired to this obverse die
MONET-AE AVG

MONETA-E AVG


COS I, MONET AVG


COS I-I - MONET AVG

COS II - MONET AVG - double die match - Neither coin is perfect . If I could combine the good aspects of both coins I might end with one good coin

 

29. Near the end of the 'Emesa' mint period came a series of denarii with dated reverse legends. TRPIII IMPV COSII One shows a trophy of arms reminiscent of the earlier INVICTO IMP coins but raised enough to accommodate two seated captives wearing caps identifying them as Parthians. Regularly, the first I of COSII on the reverse is made like a Greek gamma but the obverse is 'normal'. Why? I have no idea.


As back-ups we will see the other dated type with one captive but no trophy. On this coin he has hands tied behind his back. On this specimen, dots have been inserted in the reverse legend separating the words with the odd variation with T.RP where we might have expected TR.P for Tribunicas Potestas. Again, I have no idea why.


Next we have the same scene but the hands are untied with one held to the head in what we might term the 'Woe is me' pose. The dots are gone but the gamma shaped first I remains. We might note that the Vespasian Judaea Capta captives also were shown in bound and mourning poses. Were the 'Emesa' diecutters aware of this? Perhaps.


My final back-up (apologies for its worn condition but it is what I have) makes the addition of a curved sword in exergue. This device also appeared on some coins of Trajan but the 'why' is another mystery beyond my understanding. See a CNG specimen:
https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=221943


We are getting down to the end of September and a hard decision will have to be made as to what finishes the month. Stay tuned.

 

I have the bound captive with arms type

and the "woe is me" pose with the arms and sword in exe. This time combined with the SPE for SEP legend error on the obverse. I suspect that they were aware of the prototypes they were basing these coins on. I did consider trying to collect the corresponding likely prototypes but there is only limited time and limited budget.....

 

Septemberius 29th - two captives seated back-to-back, Rome mint I think:


Septimius Severus Denarius
(195 A.D.)
Rome Mint
L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP V Laureate head right / PART ARAB PART ADAIB bound captives seated back to back, COS II P P in exergue.
RIC 62; RSC 363; BMC 118.
(2.67 grams / 18 mm)
eBay May 2017

 

@Marsyas Mike - there is a minor type here ADAIB should be ADIAB

 

Thank you for pointing this out @maridvnvm - I do try to keep these things as accurate as possible (my attributions posted on CT are what I use on my flips).

 

I wonder if the Adiabeni were less familiar Parthian vassals and enemies to people at Rome so the coin spelled out their name more completely.

This 'Laodicea' abbreviates more equally PAR.AR.AD. but it is later (IMP XI) so by then people may have known them better.


Rome was always at war. I wonder just how familiar the 'on the street' Roman was with the foe of the moment. Today even with TV news, I doubt a majority of Westerners could label correctly the various places we have had wars over the past few decades other than the ones they or their families served in.

 

September 29: A Mars reverse from the Eastern mint previously known as "Laodicea ad mare." The British museum now attributes these coins to Antioch:


Septimius Severus, Roman Empire, denarius, 198–202 AD, Antioch mint (previously attributed to Laodicea ad mare). Obv: L SEPT SEV AVG IMP XI PART MAX, head of Septimius Severus, laureate, r. Rev: MARTI [VICTO]RI; Mars, helmeted, in military attire, standing r., resting r. hand on shield and holding reversed spear in l. hand. 19mm, 3.01g. Ref: RIC IV.1 Septimius Severus 508.

 

I guess we are coming to the end. This is very sad, However this is one of my favorite denarii minted by Severus and it is one of the few monuments built by him that is still there and still very recognizable.
Denarius of Septimius Severus Rome 206 AD Obv. Head right laureate Rv Triumphal Arch of Septimius Severus RIC 259 Elkins 140 3.47 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen

 

30. For day thirty, I wanted to review another Legionary that is special to me but, as usual, I have trouble selecting one over another. Should I go for the mint I like, the rare one or the own that I consider the best style?

For style, I have always liked this LEG VIII AVG of Rome. In addition to a great portrait for this early period, the eagle even shows some feathers on the body. I would like to see a more bold strike from these dies.


My favorite mint, Alexandria, did not strike for Legion Eight but it was the first one honored at 'Emesa' and uses the 'first legend' IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG just as did the Rome mint. The coin is fine early 'Emesa' style but not as pleasing to me as the first, Rome, coin in my opinion. This die is known with other reverses from this first group.


Finally is the rare version like the last but with IICOS added to the reverse. This seems a bit odd since the legionary coins all had TRP COS in exergue making this a bit redundant. The coin does have eagle body feathers but loses a lot of desirability due to the small, oval flan that loses much legend. I also find interest in the fact that the standards on the coins for this same legion do not match. Someday, perhaps, someone will make a study of these standards.

It seems a shame not to finish the month with a really spectacular coin but most of my best fell earlier in the month. I did not expect this thread to survive to the 30th. These days I am wrong more than I am right. So far, I have not added a coin of Septimius in 2021. I see no likelihood that will change.

 

From the limited gathering of information I have been able to perform over the years with lots of input from Curtis Clay who probably has the most intact view of the complete chronology of these coins I have the following to share.

Adiabene was an ancient kingdom in Northern Mesopotamia circa 164 B.C to circa 379 A.D. and were vassals/client kingdom to the Parthian empire.

The Adiabenici supported Pescennius Niger and coins citing victory over them are citing a specific historical event, which is unusual in these eastern issues.

The titles of ARAB and ADIAB were voted him by the Senate in Rome soon after his victory over them early in A.D. 195. Coins were briefly struck with the additional title of PARTHICVS but Severus didn't want to offend the Parthians. The Parthicus title was quickly dropped to become ARAB ADIAB.

It is possible/likely that the eastern mints were closed during the time that Severus had returned west to deal with Clodius Albinus and were re-opened after his victory over Albinus. The standard texts date this event to 19th Feb. A.D. 197 but Curtis has corrected this chronology to 19th Feb. A.D. 196. This would align with the production of coinage in the east with IMP VIII.

So what does this all mean in terms of the coinage?

@dougsmit and @Marsyas Mike both illustrate coins with the legend PART ARAB PART ADIAB which were produced at Rome as a direct celebration of the titles being voted to Severus in A.D. 195. These titles occur in the IMP IIII and IMP V issues as do the ARAB ADIAB coins so I suppose the coins must have been produced at the very end of the IMP IIII issue and into IMP V in general. The PART titles are dropped before the coins reach the IMP VI and IMP VII issues.

The BM has some spectacular coins that illustrate part of this and I cannot resist sharing them here.

Aureus - IMP IIII - PART ARAB PART ADIAB COS II P P
(Image courtesy of the British Museum)

Sestertius - IMP V
(Image courtesy of the British Museum)


Now on to more humble coins....
By IMP VII the PART has been removed

and on into IMP VIII
(Image courtesy of the British Museum)


Now we look east.... and next we have an issue to resolve in the standard references. This is quite a scarce type and at the time of their writing both RIC (RIC 466) and BMCRE (Page 110) were solely citing Cohen 52 for the existence of this type. Cohen cites an example in Paris describes the coin as IMP VII. RIC and BMCRE both bring forward the errored reading of the coin as reading IMP VII, rather than it being a holding a coin with IMP VII-I (confirmed by Curtis Clay who has a plaster cast of the Paris example). Cohen compounds this with another error that is brought forward. He correctly describes the Rome mint Victory coins as having Victory holding a Trophy as illustrated above (Cohen 47-51) but for this coin mistakenly stated that this type is of the same type. Victory actually holds a palm on the Paris example (again confirmed by Curtis). The British Museum now has an example of this type ex. Curtis Clay collection.

I have been fortunate enough to track down several examples of the type with some subtle but (to me at least) interesting variations

This first one would be what I would consider to be a vanilla version of the type as it shows everything that needs to be described without any anomalies

Obv:– L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VIII, Laureate head right
Rev:– ARAB ADIABENIC, Victory advancing left holding wreath and palm
Minted in Laodicea-ad-Mare. A.D. 196-197


Obv:– L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VI-II, Laureate head right
Rev:– ARAB ADIABENIC, Victory advancing left holding wreath and ... (the palm is missing on this coin)

Notes:- a double die match to the Curtis Clay example mentioned above confirming the IMP VI-II legend break and the missing palm. ex Athena List, Munich, 1981, now in British Museum (also illustrated below for direct comparison).



Obv:– L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VII-I, Laureate head right
Rev:– ARAB ADIABENIC, Victory advancing left holding wreath and palm (R of ARAB corrected over B)


Obv:– L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VIII, Laureate head right
Rev:– ARAB DIABENIC (sic), Victory advancing left holding wreath and palm


to be continued.....below (you are limited on the number of images per post)

 

I find it interesting if SS felt the need to avoid 'offence' at IMP VII as on this Rome mint VII (a mite crowded on the VII)


but by IMP XI was back to calling them out on both sides of the coin. PART MAX / VICT PARTH I C AE

 

Now we skip on to A.D. 198.... and the Battle of Ctesiphon where Severus succeeded in sacking the Parthian capital.

The eastern mints had taken to copying the majority of legends and type from the contemporary Rome mint issues as is evident by the "new style" IMP VIII issues. The news from Ctesiphon must have reached the eastern mints before reaching Rome and likely had to improvise with their production until it could see how Rome reacted to the news of the Victory. We can assume that Severus adopted the title of PARTHICVS on the spot. We see the introduction of new titles of IMP XI PAR AR AD, where this now adds PARTHICVS to the earlier title from A.D. 195 of ARABICVS and the ADIABENICVS.

When the news reached Rome, the Senate amplified PARTHICVS to PARTHICVS MAXIMVS which then resulted in new title on the Rome mint coins, IMP XI PART MAX and dropping the older victory titles which was then followed by the eastern mints when they became aware of the decisions of the Rome mint.

During this small window there were coins produced in the eastern mints. The very first issue come from a single obverse die with three known reverses.

Obv:– L SEP SEVERVS PER AVG PIV IMP XI PAR P M, laureate head right
Rev:– AR AD TR P VI / COS II P P, Two captives seated back to back at the foot of a trophy
Eastern mint. A.D. 198
Reference:– BMCRE page 280 Sword, citing RD page 105. RIC 494b corr.

Lots of things to note here. There is an odd usage of PIV on the obverse. The obverse legend ends PAR P M - (PARTHICVS PONTIFEX MAXIMVS) before the titles continue on the reverse as AR AB (ARABICVS ADIABENICVS). The whole structure of these titles seems quite awkward.



The same awkward title construct occurs on a matching Victory type



The obverse die also occurs with SALVTI AVGG



The eastern mints then standardised on PAR AR AD on the reverse.

Obv:– L SEP SEVERVS PER AVG P M IMP XI, laureate head right
Rev:– PAR AR AD TR P VI COS II P P, Victory advancing left, holding wreath and palm
Minted in Laodicea ad Mare, A.D. 198



They then adopted a message more aligned with Rome with PART MAX on the obverse....

Obv:– L SEPT SEV AVG IMP XI PART MAX, Laureate head right
Rev:– VICT PARTHICAE, Victory walking left, holding wreath in right hand, trophy over left shoulder; captive left.
Minted in Laodicea-ad-Mare. A.D. 198-202
Reference:– RIC IV 514; BMCRE 672; RSC 741.



which was later maintained on the reverse

Obv:– SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right
Rev:– PART MAX P M TR P VIIII, two captives seated at foot of trophy
Minted in Laodicea-ad-Mare. A.D. 202



I come to Alexandria as an almost afterthought. Alexandria also celebrated the earlier Victory in A.D. 195, which allows us to place this coin quite late in the chronology of the Alexandrian output, especially as they adopted the shortened ARAB ADIAB....

Obv:- [IMP C]AE L SEP [SEV PERT AVG], Laureate head right
Rev:- ARAB A-DIA-B COS II P P, Victory walking left, holding wreath in right hand, trophy on left shoulder
Minted in Alexandria, A.D. 195
References:- RIC IV 346; BMCRE 326; RSC 47a



I apologise for the long, drawn out post. I will leave it there and draw my contribution to this celebration of September to a close.
Martin

 

My example suffers from the dreaded 'flan disease' placing the best part of the legend off flan.

I'll miss your posts tomorrow. Your collected SS contributions to Coin Talk over the years are exponentially better than any book I have on the subject.

 

Sept. 30: A pity that the month is over. As my last coin, I am posting the only large imperial bronze of Septimius Severus that I own. His sestertii are substantially scarcer than his denarii. The reverse on my coin is nothing special, but look at the quality of engraving on the portrait! The large flan gave the engraver ample space for skillfully crafted portrait details:


Septimius Severus, Roman Empire, AE sestertius, 195–196 AD, Rome mint. Obv: L SEPT SE[V P]ERT AVG IMP VII; 29.5mm, bust of Septimius Severus, laureate, with drapery on l. shoulder, r. Rev: [DIVI] M PII F [P M] TR P III COS II P P; Felicitas, draped, standing l., foot on prow, holding caduceus in r, hand and cornucopiae in l. hand. 29.5mm, 20.23g. Ref: RIC IV Septimius Severus 701b.

 

Septimius 30th - another month gone by too quickly. This thread turned into a real reference bonanza for Septimius Severus, with @dougsmit and @maridvnvm and others contributing an astonishing array of types and information.

Which is to say I'll miss this thread. Octavian Octoberius is going to see me tapping out on day one...Numerian November is already a bust

Here is another Victory type, ARAB and ADIAB but no PART, as described so thoroughly by @maridvnvm above. The flan is a bit crowded, so I am not 100% on the attribution:

Septimius Severus Denarius
(195-196 A.D.)
Rome Mint
L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VII, laureate head right / ARAB ADIAB [COS II PP],
Victory walking left holding wreath and trophy.
RIC 64; RSC III 50
(3.04 grams / 16 mm)
eBay April 2019

To my surprise, I actually had a couple of leftovers, which I'll chuck out here - this should be pretty much every SS I own:


Finally, a crumbling fourree from a Bath (England) souvenir:

 

Doug,
That coin is fantastic. Whilst the best part of the legend is off-flan what is present is sublime.
Thank you for that comment. I am not sure that anyone other than you or I really care about the content of my posts. Sometimes they are a bit of a stream of consciousness as I get my thoughts line up.
Martin

 

At the rate my eyesight is going south, I suggest you hurry up with your book if you expect to sell me one. I see things better now on enlarged photos. Actually everyone sees things better on enlarged photos. We are spoiled by the Internet.

 

Well, I was holding on for a lull in the posts, and that never happened! This was a fun thread to watch. Here is my only Septimus (and as per usual, I need to work on the photo for it…)
Imperial Rome
Septimus Severus, r. 193-211 A.D. (207A.D.)
Rome Mint, AR Denarius, 18.59 mm x 3.73 grams
Obv.: SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right
Rev.: RESTITVTOR VRBIS, Roma seated left, holding Palladium and scepter, shield at side
Ref.: SRCV 6358, RIC IV-1 288, p. 127