Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3037 Sess. 2-4 5 January 2015
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Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus (Augusta, AD 193-217). AV aureus (20mm, 7.34 gm, 12h). J Rome, AD 194. IVLIA DO-MNA AVG, draped bust of Julia Domna right, her hair in five waves and bound up at the back / VENERI VICTR, Venus, partially draped, standing right, holding a palm branch over left shoulder and globe in right hand, leaning left elbow on a low column to her left. RIC (Severus) 536. BMCRE 47. Calicó 2641a. A stunning aureus with a lovely, youthful portrait and a charming image of Venus. Perfectly struck and fully lustrous, with full "mint bloom" in fields. NGC Gem MS 5/5 - 5/5.Julia Domna was of Syrian-Arab ancestry, as the daughter of the hereditary high priest of Elagabal at Emesa, a wealthy caravan city in the Syrian desert. Beautiful, cultured and highly educated, she was made even more of a "prize" by a horoscope that proclaimed she would marry a king. Septimius Severus probably encountered her family while serving as a general in Syria in the AD 180s; when he learned of the horoscope, he immediately wrote to her father and secured her hand in marriage. Upon Severus' ascension as Roman Emperor in AD 193, Julia was named Augusta and became his closest advisor and confidant. Her love of art, learning and philosophy manifested in a cultural Renaissance in Rome. Her profile graces the obverse of this superb aureus, while the reverse image of Venus Victrix recalls an issue of Titus struck a century earlier.
Estimate: 30000-40000 USD
Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus (Augusta, AD 193-217). AV aureus (20mm, 7.34 gm, 12h). J Rome, AD 194. IVLIA DO-MNA AVG, draped bust of Julia Domna right, her hair in five waves and bound up at the back / VENERI VICTR, Venus, partially draped, standing right, holding a palm branch over left shoulder and globe in right hand, leaning left elbow on a low column to her left. RIC (Severus) 536. BMCRE 47. Calicó 2641a. A stunning aureus with a lovely, youthful portrait and a charming image of Venus. Perfectly struck and fully lustrous, with full "mint bloom" in fields. NGC Gem MS 5/5 - 5/5.Julia Domna was of Syrian-Arab ancestry, as the daughter of the hereditary high priest of Elagabal at Emesa, a wealthy caravan city in the Syrian desert. Beautiful, cultured and highly educated, she was made even more of a "prize" by a horoscope that proclaimed she would marry a king. Septimius Severus probably encountered her family while serving as a general in Syria in the AD 180s; when he learned of the horoscope, he immediately wrote to her father and secured her hand in marriage. Upon Severus' ascension as Roman Emperor in AD 193, Julia was named Augusta and became his closest advisor and confidant. Her love of art, learning and philosophy manifested in a cultural Renaissance in Rome. Her profile graces the obverse of this superb aureus, while the reverse image of Venus Victrix recalls an issue of Titus struck a century earlier.
Estimate: 30000-40000 USD