Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXI 24-25 Mar 2021
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Severus Alexander AV Aureus. Rome, AD 231-235. IMP ALEXANDER PIVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / IOVI PROPVGNATORI, Jupiter standing facing, head to right, nude but for cloak over shoulder, wielding thunderbolt in right hand and holding eagle in left. RIC IV 237; C. 82; BMCRE 823; Calicó 3061a (same dies). 7.11g, 21mm, 1h.
Fleur De Coin.
From the Collection of GK, Ukrainian Emigrant;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 91, 23 May 2016, lot 41 (hammer: CHF 16,000);
Privately purchased from Freeman & Sear, July 2005.
The last five years of Severus Alexander's reign witnessed the shattering of its earlier peace and precipitated the lasting turmoil within the Empire known as the Crisis of the Third Century. In AD 227 Ardashir I had invaded the Parthian Empire, overthrowing Artabanus V and founding the Sasanian Empire, which he labelled a restoration of the Achaemenids - with himself as the new King of Kings (Shahanshah). Alexander, a young man with very little experience of warfare, set out with his mother Julia Mamaea in 231 to try to curb their advance into Roman territory. Despite the Emperor not acquitting himself particularly well, the Roman troops managed to beat the Sasanian forces back and establish a watchful peace; concurrently however, Germanic and Sarmatian tribes took advantage of the drawdown of troops needed for the campaign in the East to cross the Rhine and Danube and encroach on Roman lands. In 234 Alexander set out Northwards to try to deal with this new threat looming closer to home.
These were wars of border defence, and this manifests in the coinage of this period. Coins such as the present were part of an attempt to conjure an appearance of a staunch defence led by the divinely-aided Emperor, here depicting Jupiter Propugnator, or 'Jupiter the Defender', who was said to protect and assist the Emperor in war, and in whose temples the Emperor sacrificed and gave thanks for his continued guardianship.
Regardless of this thin and quotidian propaganda, the legions of the Rhineland and Danubian regions were unconvinced of Severus' fitness to successfully defend the Empire from such threats. Uninspired by his inexperienced and hesitant generalship, by the fact that he seemed to be led by his mother and to treat the Eastern troops with favouritism, and ultimately swayed by his weak position on taking the fight to the Germans (he had, instead, tried to pay them to leave), they switched their allegiance to Maximinus Thrax, a man of humble origin but who was seen as the strongest military candidate by the troops, having worked his way through the army to become commander of the Legio IV Italica, partly on account of huge stature and physical strength. He was acclaimed emperor by the troops present, and Severus Alexander was murdered in his camp alongside his mother. In doing so, these troops fashioned what was to become the new paradigm of the ideal emperor - that of the warrior general - which would endure until after the reign of Constantine I.
Fleur De Coin.
From the Collection of GK, Ukrainian Emigrant;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 91, 23 May 2016, lot 41 (hammer: CHF 16,000);
Privately purchased from Freeman & Sear, July 2005.
The last five years of Severus Alexander's reign witnessed the shattering of its earlier peace and precipitated the lasting turmoil within the Empire known as the Crisis of the Third Century. In AD 227 Ardashir I had invaded the Parthian Empire, overthrowing Artabanus V and founding the Sasanian Empire, which he labelled a restoration of the Achaemenids - with himself as the new King of Kings (Shahanshah). Alexander, a young man with very little experience of warfare, set out with his mother Julia Mamaea in 231 to try to curb their advance into Roman territory. Despite the Emperor not acquitting himself particularly well, the Roman troops managed to beat the Sasanian forces back and establish a watchful peace; concurrently however, Germanic and Sarmatian tribes took advantage of the drawdown of troops needed for the campaign in the East to cross the Rhine and Danube and encroach on Roman lands. In 234 Alexander set out Northwards to try to deal with this new threat looming closer to home.
These were wars of border defence, and this manifests in the coinage of this period. Coins such as the present were part of an attempt to conjure an appearance of a staunch defence led by the divinely-aided Emperor, here depicting Jupiter Propugnator, or 'Jupiter the Defender', who was said to protect and assist the Emperor in war, and in whose temples the Emperor sacrificed and gave thanks for his continued guardianship.
Regardless of this thin and quotidian propaganda, the legions of the Rhineland and Danubian regions were unconvinced of Severus' fitness to successfully defend the Empire from such threats. Uninspired by his inexperienced and hesitant generalship, by the fact that he seemed to be led by his mother and to treat the Eastern troops with favouritism, and ultimately swayed by his weak position on taking the fight to the Germans (he had, instead, tried to pay them to leave), they switched their allegiance to Maximinus Thrax, a man of humble origin but who was seen as the strongest military candidate by the troops, having worked his way through the army to become commander of the Legio IV Italica, partly on account of huge stature and physical strength. He was acclaimed emperor by the troops present, and Severus Alexander was murdered in his camp alongside his mother. In doing so, these troops fashioned what was to become the new paradigm of the ideal emperor - that of the warrior general - which would endure until after the reign of Constantine I.