Julia Paula Sestertius RIC IV Elagabalus 381

Monetary Context and Denominational Role

During the reign of Elagabalus (AD 218 to 222), the Roman monetary system retained the nominal denominations established under Augustus and adjusted during the Antonine and Severan eras. The sestertius, traditionally an orichalcum coin worth four asses or one quarter of a silver denarius, remained the heaviest everyday base-metal denomination circulating across Italy and the western provinces. By the early third century AD, inflation, rising military expenditures, and fluctuating metal purity had placed pressure on the imperial bimetallic and trimetallic standard. Although silver denarii and radiates (antoniniani) constituted the bulk of official military payouts, the sestertius maintained an essential civic role. It facilitated high-value retail transactions, tax settlements, and market commerce where token bronze coins were preferred over precious metal. Large brass and bronze issues for imperial women were vital vehicles for dynastic promotion, proclaiming domestic stability and the continuation of the ruling house to the civilian population.

Mint Organization and Production Standards

The entire regular bronze coinage for Julia Paula was produced at the imperial mint in Rome. Operations at Rome were organized into officinae (workshops), where skilled celators engraved dies for concurrent issues of Elagabalus, his grandmother Julia Maesa, and later other members of the imperial family. Sestertii of this era typically weighed between 20 and 26 grams, with a module measuring approximately 29 to 32 millimeters, although individual flans exhibit considerable variation due to rapid production and manual flan preparation. Flans were cast in open moulds before being struck between engraved iron or bronze dies at elevated temperatures. The alloy used during the Severan period was nominally orichalcum (a brass alloy of copper and zinc), though chemical analyses demonstrate increasing proportions of lead and tin, reflecting secondary metal recycling. Striking was performed under the formal authority of the Senate, indicated by the letters S C, preserving the constitutional fiction of senatorial oversight over base-metal issues.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Image

The obverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 381 features a right-facing bust of Julia Paula, depicted with elegant drapery across the shoulders and wearing a diadem or stephane. Paula's coiffure reflects the established fashion of the Severan court, introduced by Julia Domna and maintained by Julia Maesa. The hair is parted neatly, drawn across the head in horizontal waves, and gathered low at the nape into a broad braided plait that is folded back against the rear of the head. This controlled, modest presentation was designed to align the young aristocrat with traditional Roman virtues of pudicitia (chastity) and gravitas. Die variations within the series exhibit minor stylistic differences in portrait modeling, from softer, juvenile facial profiles to more formal courtly renderings, yet the essential hairstyle and presence of the diadem remain consistent across the type.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolic Program

The reverse iconography centers on Concordia, the divine embodiment of harmony, mutual affection, and marital fidelity. She is depicted draped and seated upon a throne facing left. In her right hand she extends a patera, a shallow libation bowl used in religious offerings, while her left arm cradles a double cornucopiae, the horn of plenty signifying peace, abundance, and imperial fruitfulness. The composition is visually distinguished by a star set prominently in the left field. In the numismatics of Elagabalus, the star is widely interpreted by scholars as an explicit celestial attribute of Elagabal, the Syrian sun god of Emesa, whom the emperor served as hereditary high priest. The synthesis of traditional Roman Concordia with Syrian solar symbolism underscored the divinely sanctioned union between the emperor and his patrician bride.

Epigraphy and Legend Readings

The inscriptions on RIC IV Elagabalus 381 follow concise formulas standard for Severan empresses. The obverse legend reads IVLIA PAVLA AVG, expanding to Iulia Paula Augusta. By omitting ancestral or matrimonial qualifiers, the legend presents her rank directly as Augusta, a title conferred upon her imperial marriage in late AD 219. The lettering is cleanly cut in classical Roman serifed capitals, running clockwise from the lower left. The reverse legend reads CONCORDIA, encircling the upper flan to identify the personification. In the exergue or flanking the seated goddess are the letters S C (Senatus Consulto, 'by decree of the Senate'), marking official senatorial sanction for base-metal coinage. The presence of the unlettered star in the left field functions as a non-epigraphic religious signifier.

Typology and Chronological Sequence

RIC IV Elagabalus 381 belongs to a strictly defined, brief emission window between late AD 219 and late AD 220. Julia Paula, daughter of the prominent jurist and praetorian prefect Julius Paulus, was chosen as bride for Elagabalus by Julia Maesa to enhance the young emperor's standing with the Roman senatorial aristocracy. Coins commemorating their wedding prominently featured Concordia. The type is categorized within Roman Imperial Coinage IV Part II under Elagabalus, specifically cataloguing the sestertius with seated Concordia and a star in the left field. Closely related issues exist without the star, as well as standing Concordia types, each catalogued under distinct numbers. When Elagabalus abruptly divorced Paula in late AD 220 to wed the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, Paula was stripped of the title Augusta and withdrew into private life. Consequently, minting of her coinage terminated immediately.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Because Paula's coinage was struck for barely one year, the overall volume of RIC IV Elagabalus 381 produced at Rome was modest compared to the extensive bronze coinages of Julia Domna or Severus Alexander. Despite her divorce and political sidelining, Paula was not subjected to formal damnatio memoriae, meaning her bronze coins were not systematically recalled, defaced, or melted down by official edict. Instead, they remained in western circulation alongside other Severan aes. Sestertii of Paula appear intermittently in third-century hoard contexts across Italy, Gaul, and the Rhine frontier, typically exhibiting moderate to heavy wear consistent with several decades of active monetary exchange before the severe debasements and monetary disruptions of the mid-third century AD.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 588-590
2. The Roman Coinage of Macrinus and Diadumenian and the Severan Mint of Rome. pp. 21-40
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Elagabalus 381. ric.4.el.381
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 59, no. 381