Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire
Septimius Severus, 193 – 211

Aureus 204, AV 7.42 g. SEVERVS – PIVS AVG Laureate head r. Rev. COS III LVDOS SAECVL FEC Bacchus, wearing leopard's skin, standing r., panther at feet, holding cantharus in r. hand and thyrsus in l., and Hercules standing l., holding club set on ground in r. hand and lion's skin draped over l. arm. C 108. BMC 314. RIC 257. Calicó 2444.
Rare. Perfectly struck and centred on a very large flan, extremely fine


Ex Freeman & Sear List 9, Spring 2004, 90 and Triton VIII, 2005, 1159 sales.

With the civil wars successfully behind him, a new Severan dynasty established, and Rome's external enemies at bay, the emperor Septimius Severus and his family were finally free to return to Rome. Their arrival in the capital in A.D. 202 after a long and circuitous route coincided with the tenth anniversary of Septimius Severus' reign, his decennalia, which was celebrated with magnificent games, a donative to the people, and a majestic triumph. If these festivities were indeed grand, the celebrations when Rome inaugurated a new age, or saeculum, just two years later in A.D. 204 were even more lavish: the Romans partied for an entire month! (Actually, in Rome lengthy celebrations were not all that unusual; extrapolating from Ovid's incomplete Fasti, the Romans spent about a third of the year celebrating various feriae (festivals) and ludi (games)). Again the celebrations consisted of magnificent games, sacrifices, and another welcome donative to the inhabitants of the city, all of which were presided over by the emperor and his two sons. The reverse of this coin shows Liber (or Bacchus) and Hercules, who together were patrons of Severus' home and feature prominently on the coinage struck at this time. The legend, LVDOS SAECVL(ares) FEC(it), leaves no doubt that the games were the gift of the emperor to the citizens of Rome.