Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire

Septimius Severus, 193 – 211. Aureus 201, AV 7.34 g. SEVERVS AVG – PART MAX Laureate bust of Septimius Severus r., draped in lion-skin. Rev. IVLIA – AVGVSTA Draped bust of Julia Domna r. C 1. BMC S. Severus 192. RIC 161b. Calicó 2587 (this obverse die).
Two exquisite portraits of superb style struck in high relief.
Virtually as struck and almost Fdc

Ex M&M XIII, 1954, 729 and Leu 86, 2003, 890 sales. From the de Guermantes collection.
Like several other Severan issues in this sale, this attractive aureus belongs to the dynastic series struck by Septimius Severus in A.D. 200-201. The purpose of the series was to advertise the stability of the imperial family and the preparations for a smooth transition of power from Severus to his sons that would save the Roman world from yet another destructive civil war. Here, Severus depicts his loyal and strong-willed wife, Julia Domna, on the reverse. She was an important figure throughout Severus' reign. During his campaigns against the rival emperors Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, she had followed her husband to war and was proclaimed Mater Castrorum (Mother of the Camp) and later Mater Patriae (Mother of the Fatherland). Later, when the mutual jealousy of her sons Caracalla and Geta threatened to destabilize Severus' work, Julia Domna was the mediator between them. Indeed, this role was deemed so important by Severus that he stipulated in his will that when he died and full imperial power devolved upon Caracalla and Geta, Julia Domna would continue to have power to mediate in their disputes. Unfortunately, she was quickly relieved of this duty when Caracalla had Geta killed less than a year after the death of Septimius Severus (AD 211).
Severus' portrait on the obverse is also notable, not only for the wonderful execution of the hair and beard, but for the message that it is intended to convey. The imperial titulature identifies Severus as Parthicus Maximus, a title he was awarded after the successful eastern campaigns that he undertook in AD 197. These saw Roman assaults on the important Parthian cities of Seleucia on the Tigris, Babylon, and the western Parthian capital at Ctesiphon, and the formation of a new Roman province of Mesopotamia. Upon his return to Rome, Severus celebrated a great triumph. This was commemorated by the Arch of Septimius Severus which still stands in the Roman Forum today. The portrait of the emperor goes a step further and depicts him wearing a large aegis - the scaly goatskin shield of Jupiter and Minerva emblazoned with the head of Medusa. Severus wears it here not so much to illustrate the protection accorded to him by these deities but to associate himself with Alexander the Great, the most famous conqueror of eastern lands. One of the popular portrait types of the Macedonian conqueror in the Hellenistic and Roman periods was that of Alexander Aegiochos (Alexander wearing the aegis) in which Alexander the Great wears a chlamys-sized aegis. Here we seem to have Severus Aegiochos as the victor over a latter-day Persian Empire.