Aquilia Severa Bronze Sestertius, RIC IV Elagabalus 390

Monetary and Denominational Context

During the reign of Elagabalus (218 to 222 AD), the sestertius remained the foundational large base-metal denomination of imperial Rome, maintaining an established tariff of one quarter of a silver denarius or four copper asses. Under the Severan emperors, base-metal coinage had experienced subtle compositional and metrological transitions. Although originally composed of orichalcum, a brass alloy combining copper and zinc, third-century sestertii increasingly showed fluctuations in zinc content, occasionally approaching bronze alloys with tin and lead inclusions. Despite these metallurgical shifts, the sestertius retained substantial purchasing power, circulating heavily in civilian markets, public taxation, and regional administrative payments. Denominations struck for female members of the imperial family carried distinct ideological weight. While imperial women possessed no independent administrative power, their representation on major coinage like the sestertius affirmed dynastic continuity, divine favour, and marital legitimacy. Struck under the authority of Elagabalus, RIC IV Elagabalus 390 served as an imperial proclamation of Aquilia Severa's elevation to the title of Augusta. Given the high religious scandal surrounding her marriage to the emperor, because she was a consecrated Vestal Virgin whose vows of chastity were sacrosanct under Roman law, the production of prestigious aes denominations was essential to propagate the official narrative of imperial concord and divine sanction across the empire.

Mint Organization and Production

All official imperial aes denominations bearing the name of Julia Aquilia Severa were manufactured exclusively at the primary imperial mint located in Rome. The mint operated with dedicated officinae, or workshops, that managed the preparation of heavy cast flans, engraving of dies, and striking processes for bronze, silver, and gold currencies. For sestertii of this period, flans were individually cast in open or two-part moulds, producing thick planchets with slightly beveled edges and frequent minor casting sprues or edge cracks developed during striking. The dies were hand-cut by experienced engravers working under official directives. Surviving specimens of RIC IV Elagabalus 390 demonstrate typical Severan workshop practices, showing die axes aligned predominantly at twelve o'clock or six o'clock, with minor rotations common to ancient manual hammer production. The weight of sestertii during the later Severan period hovered broadly around an average of 20 to 24 grams, though individual specimens can range from approximately 18 grams to over 26 grams due to loose tolerances in ancient batch-weighing systems (al marco). The production of this specific type was concentrated in two potential chronological windows: her initial elevation in late 220 AD until her divorce in mid-221 AD, and her brief restoration as empress from late 221 AD until the assassination of Elagabalus in March 222 AD.

Obverse Design and Iconography

The obverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 390 features an imperial portrait bust of Julia Aquilia Severa facing right. The bust is carefully draped in traditional Roman matronly garments, reflecting modesty and elite dignity. Her head is adorned with a royal diadem, indicating her imperial rank as Augusta. The hairstyle portrayed on this issue adheres to the distinct coiffure popularised during the Severan period: her hair is arranged in soft, horizontal ridges or waves across the crown and pulled toward the back of the head, where it is gathered and folded upward into a wide, flattened braid or plait resting against the nape and occiput. This portrait style closely mirrors the court fashion established by earlier Severan empresses, notably Julia Domna and Julia Maesa, providing visual continuity with the established dynasty. The portraiture presents a dignified and idealised female visage rather than an unvarnished naturalistic likeness, projecting stability, youth, and imperial authority to an empire experiencing political and cultural volatility. Minor variations exist in the precise rendering of the drapery folds and the breadth of the diadem, reflecting the hands of different engravers working simultaneously within the Rome mint's ateliers.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse of the type features the standing figure of Concordia, personification of harmony, consensus, and domestic agreement. She is dressed in a long, draped stola and mantle, standing with her torso turned slightly toward the left. In her right extended hand, Concordia holds a patera, a shallow libation dish, from which she pours an offering over a small, ignited, cylindrical altar set on the ground to her left. In her left arm, she cradles a double cornucopiae, the horn of plenty, brimming with fruits and agricultural produce. The double cornucopiae serves as a clear visual allusion to reciprocal abundance, marital union, and the prosperity of the imperial house. Flanking the lower fields of the composition are the bold capital letters S and C, denoting Senatus Consulto, acknowledging formal senatorial authorization for the bronze issue. Distinctive to this issue and many contemporary Severan types under Elagabalus is a prominent six-pointed or eight-pointed star positioned in the upper right field. In the context of Elagabalus's reign, the star is widely interpreted by numismatists as a celestial and solar emblem referencing the god Elagabal of Emesa, whom the emperor served as high priest. The synthesis of traditional Roman sacrificial piety performed by Concordia and Eastern solar astral symbolism captures the ideological fusion that characterized Elagabalus's religious program.

Inscriptions and Epigraphy

The inscriptions on RIC IV Elagabalus 390 are concise, standardized, and rendered in classic Roman monumental capital lettering. The obverse legend reads continuously clockwise around the portrait: IVLIA AQVILIA SEVERA AVG. Here, the name Julia links the empress honorifically to the imperial dynasty and its ancestral protectorate, while Aquilia Severa provides her personal nomen and cognomen, concluding with the abbreviation AVG for Augusta, the supreme imperial title granted to Roman empresses. On the reverse, the legend is succinct: CONCORDIA, encircling the upper periphery, with S C situated in the lower fields across the figure of the goddess. The term Concordia directly articulates the ideal of marital harmony between Elagabalus and Aquilia Severa, as well as broader concord between the imperial family, the senate, and the military. The letters S C stand for Senatus Consulto ('by decree of the Senate'), a formulaic legal phrase that had survived from the Augustan monetary system to denote the traditional senatorial oversight of base-metal coinage struck at Rome. Epigraphic execution is clear and well-spaced, although minor variations in letter size and spacing occur across different die sets.

Typology and Chronological Classification

Within Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham's Roman Imperial Coinage classification, this sestertius is designated as RIC IV Elagabalus 390. It belongs to the series of base-metal issues struck for Aquilia Severa during Elagabalus's reign, which is broadly datable between late 220 AD and March 222 AD. Elagabalus abruptly divorced his first wife, Julia Paula, late in 220 AD to marry Aquilia Severa, declaring that a marriage between a high priest of the Sun and a consecrated Vestal Virgin was a holy union destined to produce divine offspring. The resulting social and political outrage compelled the emperor to divorce her temporarily in the summer of 221 AD to marry Annia Faustina. However, before the close of 221 AD, Elagabalus revoked the separation, dismissed Faustina, and reinstated Aquilia Severa as Augusta, a status she retained until his murder in early 222 AD. Because the legends and portrait conventions remained unchanged between her first and second marriages, separating specimens of RIC IV 390 into neat sub-periods is challenging without secure hoard contexts or detailed die-link sequences. Related precious-metal issues, including silver denarii (such as RIC IV Elagabalus 225) and rare aurei, mirror this exact Concordia and star composition, illustrating a coordinated cross-metal typological programme across the Rome mint.

Circulation and Archaeological Patterns

Once struck at the mint of Rome, sestertii of Julia Aquilia Severa were released into general imperial circulation. Findspots of Severan aes coins span from Britannia and the Rhine-Danube frontier provinces to Roman North Africa and the Levant, demonstrating the vast reach of Rome's monetary network. Sestertii of Aquilia Severa are notably scarcer than those of long-reigning Severan empresses such as Julia Domna or Julia Mamaea, primarily due to the brief duration of her time as Augusta. Following the death of Elagabalus and the damnatio memoriae directed at his memory, base-metal coins of his reign were not uniformly recalled or systematically melted down, but remained in everyday circulation. The heavy wear observed on many extant specimens of RIC IV Elagabalus 390 suggests that they continued to trade through the mid-third century AD, circulating alongside older Antonine and later Severan bronzes until the systemic collapse of large bronze coinage during the monetary crises of the 260s and 270s AD. Archaeological hoards containing third-century aes regularly demonstrate that sestertii remained active until worn smooth or officially demonetised during subsequent currency reforms.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 586-588
2. The Chronology of the Reign of Elagabalus. Numismatische Zeitschrift 108/109, pp. 49-98
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Elagabalus 390. ric.4.el.390
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. p. 60, no. 390