Septimius Severus Denarius, RIC IV Septimius Severus 167A (denarius)

Monetary Context and Reform

The emission of RIC IV Septimius Severus 167A occurred during a pivotal transformational phase in the history of the imperial Roman denarius. Upon seizing power in AD 193 amidst the civil conflicts following the assassination of Commodus and the brief reigns of Pertinax and Didius Julianus, Septimius Severus faced an exhausted state treasury alongside urgent demands for military expenditure. To meet the costs of substantial donatives, pay increases for legionaries, and the raising of three new Parthian legions, Severus enacted significant debasements of the silver currency between AD 194 and 198. Scientific metallurgical studies by Kevin Butcher and Matthew Ponting demonstrate that the silver content of the Rome denarius was reduced from the Commodian standard of approximately seventy percent to a median near forty-six to fifty percent fine, paired with an average mass hovering around 3.2 grams. By the period of AD 200 to 201, when this denarius was produced, the Severan silver standard had stabilized under this lower metallurgical regime. This fiscal measure enabled an unprecedented expansion in mintage volume, generating massive coinages that supplied both metropolitan commerce and the extensive frontier military zones without causing immediate systemic inflation in everyday retail transactions.

Mint Organization and Production

The denarii of type RIC IV 167A were struck exclusively at the principal imperial mint in Rome. Following the victory over Pescennius Niger in the East and Clodius Albinus in Gaul, Severus had closed or phased out the emergency provincial mint operations located at Antioch, Alexandria, and Laodicea ad Mare, consolidating mainstream denarius production back within the metropolitan workshops of the capital. The Rome mint was an organized bureaucratic and industrial facility divided into several distinct officinae (workshops). While earlier Roman coins sometimes lacked internal workshop marks, stylistic analysis of die cutting, letterforms, and portrait execution indicates tightly supervised production overseen by the procurator monetae. Blanks were cast in moulds and struck hot between intaglio dies engraved in bronze or iron. Die alignment for this type generally adheres to the standard regular vertical axis (roughly six or twelve o'clock) typical of metropolitan Severan production. The issue belongs to a dense series of coinages struck while the imperial court remained in the eastern provinces, showing that the mint in Rome operated under centralized administrative instructions relayed from the imperial comitatus.

Obverse Typology and Imperial Iconography

The obverse of RIC IV 167A features the right-facing head of Septimius Severus, adorned with a laurel wreath tied at the nape of the neck with fluttering ribbons. Stylistically, this portrait belongs to the matured Severan likeness developed during the middle years of his reign, frequently termed the Serapis or mature Antonine hairstyle type in portrait scholarship. In this depiction, Severus is portrayed with a full, deeply curled beard split into characteristic pendant ringlets, deeply carved brow lines, and thick locks of hair swept forward above the forehead. This aesthetic departed markedly from the austere, short-cropped veristic realism of his earliest civil war portraits, intentionally evoking visual continuity with Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, whom Severus had claimed as his adoptive ancestors in AD 195. The laurel wreath underscores military imperium and triumph, serving as the universal signifier of imperial authority across third-century silver denominations. The portrait occupies the central field within a bordered circle of dots, executed in high relief characteristic of the Rome die engravers.

Reverse Iconography: The Restorer of the City

The reverse design of this catalogue type presents Septimius Severus in a complex iconographical blend of priestly piety and martial power. The emperor stands turned toward the left, clad in military dress consisting of cuirass and paludamentum (military cloak). In his extended right hand, he holds a shallow patera, pouring a libation over a lit sacrificial tripod placed on the ground before him; in his left hand, he holds a vertical spear with the point oriented upward. This motif directly expresses the concept of pietas exercised by the imperator on behalf of the Roman state. Rather than adopting the veiled toga of the pontifex maximus, Severus sacrifices in uniform, communicating that the defense, security, and restoration of Rome were achieved through military virtue and secured by divine favor. The tripod represents the traditional ritual furniture associated with Apollo and public purification, while the sacrifice honors the gods for the restoration and preservation of the city after civil war and foreign conflict. This design stands as an early iteration of the Restitutor Urbis theme, which would be reused in subsequent Severan gold, silver, and bronze issues throughout the first decade of the third century AD.

Epigraphy and Legend Analysis

The inscriptions on RIC IV 167A are concise, formulaic, and highly political in their ideological content. The obverse legend reads SEVERVS AVG PART MAX, expanding as Severus Augustus, Parthicus Maximus. The omission of the praenomen Lucius and nomen Septimius concentrates emphasis on his imperial cognomen and the highest victory title granted by the Senate in AD 198 after the sack of Ctesiphon. The absence of specific tribunician numbers (such as TR P VIII or TR P VIIII) or consular designations renders this legend less chronologically precise on its face than dated consular types, but its appearance on Rome issues is strictly circumscribed between AD 200 and 201. The reverse legend reads RESTITVTOR VRBIS, translating literally as Restorer of the City. This title, originally awarded to figures such as Camillus and Augustus, celebrated Severus's architectural patronages, public benefactions, restoration of judicial stability, and the conclusion of domestic strife. The letterforms are crisply cut with pronounced serifs, set within circular beaded borders that run along the flan perimeter.

Typological Variants and Chronological Sequence

In the cataloguing scheme of Roman Imperial Coinage, RIC IV 167A denotes a specific denarius variety featuring the sacrificial scene over a tripod combined with the reverse legend RESTITVTOR VRBIS and the obverse legend SEVERVS AVG PART MAX. Neighboring catalogue entries include RIC IV 167, which features the same reverse legend but depicts the emperor sacrificing at a tripod without the specific inclusion of military dress or with variations in drapery and attribute arrangement, as well as later issues from AD 202 to 210 that repeat the RESTITVTOR VRBIS legend under later imperial titular formulas. Mattingly and Sydenham placed this issue firmly in the AD 200-201 emissions of the Rome mint based on die linkage and the transition from the earlier PART MAX legends to those incorporating the tenth and eleventh renewals of Severus's tribunician power and his third consulship in AD 202. While subtle minor variations exist in individual die engraving, such as the exact angle of the spear or the density of curls in the emperor's beard, all specimens recognized under RIC IV 167A share the uniform typological schema defined by the central Rome mint issue.

Circulation Patterns and Archaeological Context

Denarii of this type entered vast currency streams that flowed across the entire Roman world. Due to the high production volume of the Severan debased denarius, specimens of RIC IV 167A formed part of major hoards deposited both within imperial frontiers and beyond them in Barbaricum. Archaeological evidence from major hoards such as the Shapwick hoard in Britain, the Falkirk hoard in Scotland, and various Danubian and Rhenish military site finds confirms that Severan denarii struck between AD 198 and 202 remained in active circulation for several decades. They circulated side by side with worn Antonine silver and later Severan issues through the reign of Severus Alexander and into the mid-third century AD. Because the silver content of Severus's denarii was noticeably lower than the pre-193 issues, older higher-grade silver was gradually hoarded or exported according to Gresham's Law, leaving issues such as RIC IV 167A as the standard medium of silver exchange across the military settlements and urban centers of the Roman West and the Balkans.

References

1. The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage: From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan Decius. pp. 583-610
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 202-205
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part I: Pertinax to Geta. p. 110, no. 167A
4. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Septimius Severus 167A (denarius). RIC IV Septimius Severus 167A