Otacilia Severa Silver Antoninianus RIC IV Philip I 115

Monetary Context and the Antoninianus

By the reign of Philip I (244 to 249 AD), the radiate antoninianus, originally introduced under Caracalla in 215 AD as a tariffed double denarius, had become the primary silver denomination of the Roman monetary system. Although introduced with an intrinsic silver content of roughly one and a half denarii, its overvaluation ensured high state profitability while fostering progressive debasement. Under Philip I, the antoninianus largely superseded the traditional silver denarius in general circulation, with denarii reduced to limited ceremonial or special issues. In imperial portraiture, the double denarius was distinguished for male rulers by the radiate solar crown, while imperial women were represented with a crescent moon resting beneath their draped busts. This celestial dichotomy linked the emperor with Sol and the empress with Luna. By 248 AD, the fineness of the antoninianus had declined to approximately 40 to 45 percent silver, with base copper forming the remainder of the alloy. The issue of RIC IV Philip I 115 belongs squarely to this period of monetary strain, struck in substantial volume to meet military expenditures, urban distributions, and the exceptional financial outlays of the millennial secular games.

Production Standards and the Rome Mint

RIC IV Philip I 115 was struck exclusively at the principal imperial mint of Rome. Operating across multiple officinae (workshops), the Rome mint under Philip maintained a standardized system of production, dividing issues among the emperor, the empress Otacilia Severa, and their son, Philip II Caesar (later elevated to Augustus in 247 AD). During the mass coinage drives of 248 AD, several officinae were dedicated specifically to the production of imperial female types. Flans were cast in open moulds or created from sliced rods before being struck hot between hand-cut steel dies. Antoniniani of this type generally conform to a theoretical weight standard centering around 3.8 to 4.2 grams, though surviving specimens demonstrate wide variability between 3.0 and 4.8 grams due to hurried minting practices and imperfect weight tolerances per al-marco batch casting. Die axis is predominantly regular, adhering mostly to a six o'clock or twelve o'clock alignment characteristic of the central Roman mint during the mid-third century.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Image

The obverse of RIC IV Philip I 115 features the bust of Marcia Otacilia Severa facing right. She is rendered draped in a stola and wearing a regal stephane or diadem above an elaborate third-century coiffure. Her hair is crimped in tight horizontal ridges, drawn back over the ears, and carried upward along the nape of the neck in a broad braided plait pinned flat to the crown of the head, a stylistic fashion popularized by the Severan empresses and maintained through the mid-third century. The bust is set upon an upward-curving crescent moon, which projects its cusps behind and beneath the shoulders. In addition to indicating the denomination, this lunar attribute served theological purposes, framing the empress as the female celestial counterpart to the radiate emperor. The portrait modeling exhibits the typical mid-third-century veristic classicism favored during Philip's reign, blending mature individual features with dignified imperial austerity.

Reverse Iconography and Religious Symbolism

The reverse displays Pietas, the personification of religious duty, familial loyalty, and conscientious devotion to the gods and the state. Draped in a long, flowing chiton and mantle, Pietas stands facing left. Her right hand is extended in a gesture of benediction and sacrificial offering over a small, lighted altar standing at her feet, while her left hand cradles an acerra (a portable incense box used during traditional Roman sacrificial rituals). Pietas was an established motif on the coinage of Roman empresses, who were traditionally entrusted with representing the piety and traditional religious obligations of the imperial family. In the critical year of 248 AD, when the empire celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Rome, Pietas fulfilled an urgent ideological requirement. Philip I and Otacilia Severa sought to present the regime as orthodox restorers of ancestral customs and divine favor, imploring the gods for the continuity of the empire at a time of severe external barbarian pressure and internal rebellion.

Epigraphy and Legends

The legends on RIC IV Philip I 115 are executed in clean, well-spaced Latin majuscules. The obverse legend reads OTACIL SEVERA AVG, an abbreviated form of 'Otacilia Severa Augusta'. This phrasing, omitting the empress's first gentilicium 'Marcia', was standard for her regular billon issues at Rome from roughly 246 AD onward, replacing the slightly longer variations occasionally utilized in provincial or earlier emissions. The reverse inscription reads PIETAS AVGG, abbreviating 'Pietas Augustorum' ('The Piety of the Augusti'). The doubling of the letter 'G' in AVGG explicitly signifies the presence of multiple Augusti, referring to the collegiate rule of Philip I and Philip II following the young prince's elevation to co-Augustus in 247 AD. Otacilia Severa's coinage thus served not merely personal aggrandizement, but directly reinforced the tripartite solidarity of the imperial college, celebrating the joint piety of both reigning Augusti through the person and religious agency of the Augusta.

Typology and Chronological Placement

In Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham's Roman Imperial Coinage (Volume IV, Part III), type 115 is situated within the prolific Rome issues struck for Otacilia Severa during the final two years of the reign. While earlier issues from 244 to 246 AD frequently bore legends referencing single Augustus forms (such as AVGVSTI) or concordia motifs, the appearance of PIETAS AVGG definitively dates this series to the period after Philip II's promotion to Augustus in mid-247 AD, with peak output concentrated in 248 AD alongside the massive Secular Games coinage. RIC IV Philip I 115 is distinguished from closely related antoniniani by its specific combination of attributes. Other contemporary issues of Otacilia Severa feature Pietas seated, Concordia holding a patera and double cornucopiae, or types commemorating the Saeculum Novum featuring hippopotami and other exotic beasts. Type 115 retains the standing sacrificial Pietas with an altar and incense box, maintaining a traditional, conservative reverse design alongside the more overt millenary celebration types.

Circulation and Hoard Evidence

Antoniniani of RIC IV Philip I 115 circulated widely throughout the European and Mediterranean provinces of the Roman Empire. Because of the vast quantities minted to fund the imperial celebrations and imperial troop payments across the Rhine and Danube frontiers, this type appears routinely in major mid-to-late third-century hoards. Key deposit contexts, such as the monumental Gibraltar Hoard, the Dorchester Hoard in Britain, and numerous savings hoards recovered in Gaul, the Balkans, and Asia Minor, contain significant numbers of Otacilia Severa's PIETAS AVGG antoniniani. These coins remained in active circulation for several decades, surviving the monetary debasements of Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, and Valerian, before being comprehensively driven from circulation or heavily clipped during the catastrophic hyper-debasements under Gallienus and Claudius Gothicus in the late 260s AD.

References

1. Coin Hoards and Hoarding in the Roman Empire. pp. 142-168
2. The Great Dorchester Hoard of 1936. Numismatic Chronicle, Ser. 5, Vol. 19, pp. 21-61
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Philip I 115. ric.4.ph_i.115
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part III: Gordian III to Uranius Antoninus. pp. 82-83, no. 115