Septimius Severus Silver Denarius, RIC IV Septimius Severus 93

Monetary Context and Imperial Policy

The emission catalogued as RIC IV Septimius Severus 93 emerged during an intense period of monetary and administrative transformation following the civil wars of AD 193 to 197. Upon consolidating power after the death of Commodus and the rapid demises of Pertinax and Didius Julianus, Septimius Severus inherited an imperial treasury depleted by conflict and donatives. To support the military loyalty necessary to maintain his position against rivals such as Pescennius Niger in the East and Clodius Albinus in Gaul, Severus instituted structural adjustments to the imperial monetary system. The silver denarius, long the backbone of commercial transactions and military payments across the empire, underwent a deliberate debasement during his initial years of rule. Metallurgical analyses demonstrate that the Severan administration lowered the intrinsic silver content of the denarius from the approximately seventy percent fineness observed under the late Antonines down to approximately fifty to fifty-five percent, while adjusting the targeted strike weight to approximately 3.1 grams. This reduction allowed the imperial mint at Rome to dramatically increase total production volume without consuming prohibitive bullion reserves. Within this institutional landscape, the issue bearing the reverse SECVRITAS PVBLICA served a double purpose: it provided freshly struck coin to discharge imperial disbursements and spread an explicit message of state equilibrium and safety designed to reassure civilian elites and municipal markets during severe civil strife.

Production Standards and Mint Organization

The manufacture of RIC IV Septimius Severus 93 took place entirely at the principal imperial mint situated in Rome. Unlike earlier phases of the civil war when eastern branch workshops operated at Antioch, Laodicea ad Mare, or Alexandria to supply Severan armies in the Syrian and Anatolian theaters, the specific series recording imperial acclamation eight was concentrated in the capital to supply the central administration and armies mobilized toward the western front. Production followed traditional Roman striking practices with engraved bronze dies positioned between an anvil and punch. Dies were manually cut by skilled celators operating under designated workshop divisions, or officinae, within the urban mint. Although officina marks were not systematically indicated on the flans during this period, internal die linkages and stylistic analyses indicate a cohesive group of engravers responsible for portrait rendering and lettering. The coin blanks, cast in open molds or cut from cast flan strips, demonstrate the typical variations in physical diameter (generally between seventeen and nineteen millimeters) and strike thickness common to Severan precious-metal issues. Severan coin manufacture at Rome during AD 196 and 197 operated at high speed to fulfill financial mandates, which occasionally produced minor off-centering, uneven rims, or surface planchet fissures that were accepted in general circulation.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Image

The obverse of RIC IV Septimius Severus 93 features a right-facing, mature portrait of Septimius Severus wearing a laurel wreath tied at the nape of the neck with fluttering ribbons. Stylistically, this portrait belongs to what art historians and numismatists classify as Severus's second major portrait type, characterized by an adopting of Antonine stylistic conventions alongside distinct personal traits. The beard is rendered with curled, distinct locks, and the hair over the brow is styled into prominent curls that evoke the likeness of Marcus Aurelius, whom Severus formally declared as his adoptive father in AD 195 to legitimize his dynasty. The profile displays pronounced, determined facial features, an aquiline nose, and an alert, deep-set eye framed by a strong brow. The laurel wreath symbolizes imperial triumph and supreme military command, signaling victorious continuity following the pacification of eastern frontiers and domestic opposition. Engravers at the Rome mint captured both the authority of an active general and the dignified gravitas of a legitimate princeps, balancing dynamic military prestige with the traditional dignity required of an emperor addressing the Senate and people.

Reverse Design and Symbolic Imagery

The reverse iconography presents the female personification of Securitas seated upon a backless seat or curule chair facing left. She is draped in a long stola and palla that fall in rhythmic folds about her lower limbs, leaving her upper body and arms visible. In her extended right hand, she holds a round celestial globe, while her left hand typically rests comfortably beside her torso or lightly supports her drapery in a posture expressive of complete repose and confidence. The presence of the globe is of central symbolic importance, linking the concept of personal and public safety directly to universal terrestrial dominion. In the visual language of Roman imperial coinage, an enthroned or seated figure holding a globe represented an established order that encompassed the entire civilized world, or orbis terrarum. Securitas herself personified freedom from domestic fear, insurrections, and economic chaos. By depicting her at rest, the mint asserted that the tumultuous civil clashes of the mid-190s AD had been suppressed, and that through the steadfast vigilance of Septimius Severus, universal security had been re-established for the Roman commonwealth.

Inscriptions and Epigraphic Analysis

The legends on both faces of the coin form a cohesive epigraphic statement reflecting official Severan ideology in abbreviated Latin formulas. The obverse reads L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VIII, which expands to Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax Augustus, Imperator VIII. The praenomen Lucius and gentilician name Septimius announce his legal nomenclature, while Severus constitutes his family cognomen. The cognomen Pertinax, adopted shortly after his accession, intentionally affiliated him with the murdered reformist emperor Publius Helvius Pertinax, thereby establishing a narrative of legitimate vengeance against the usurpers who murdered him. The titles Augustus and Imperator VIII mark his supreme constitutional authority and his consecutive acclamations for military victories, the eighth acclamation being awarded primarily for his triumph over Pescennius Niger and the reduction of Byzantium. The reverse inscription reads SECVRITAS PVBLICA, translating directly as 'Public Security' or 'Safety of the People'. Rendered in neat capital lettering running clockwise along the border, the phrase framed the seated personification as an institutional benefit delivered by the emperor directly to all civic domains of the empire.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference classification established by Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham in The Roman Imperial Coinage, this specific reverse and obverse combination is catalogued as RIC IV (Septimius Severus) 93. Its precise chronology is anchored securely by the imperial title IMP VIII on the obverse. Septimius Severus assumed the eighth imperial acclamation in late AD 196 following the fall of Byzantium and the consolidation of his authority over the East, and he retained this titular designation until accepting IMP VIIII late in AD 197 during his subsequent campaigns. Consequently, RIC 93 forms part of a tightly dated issue struck in the interim between the rupture of relations with his former Caesar, Clodius Albinus, and the climactic Battle of Lugdunum in February AD 197. Related types within this same acclamation group depict variants of Securitas standing, or celebrate concurrent themes such as Fortuna, Adventus, and Fides Legionum. RIC 93 remains typologically distinct due to the combination of the seated stance of Securitas with the globe attribute and the specific legend configuration terminating in IMP VIII.

Circulation, Hoards, and Archaeological Context

Denarii of the type RIC IV Septimius Severus 93 circulated extensively throughout the Roman world, functioning within broad multi-denominational currency networks. As a result of high mint output in AD 196 and 197, these coins were rapidly integrated into the pay chests of legions stationed along the Rhine and Danube frontiers, as well as dispersing across civilian markets in Italy, the western provinces, and North Africa. Due to Gresham's Law and imperial fiscal manipulation, older pre-debasement denarii of high silver purity from the reigns of Trajan, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius were progressively hoarded or melted down, leaving Severan denarii of lower fineness to dominate regular day-to-day transactions. In archaeological contexts, RIC 93 regularly appears in major third-century coin hoards throughout Britain, Gaul, and Germany, often surviving in well-worn condition alongside subsequent Severan issues and early radiates of Caracalla and Severus Alexander. Their presence in hoards buried decades after their issue demonstrates that these denarii maintained their face value in local commercial circulation long after the civil crisis of AD 196 and 197 had passed.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 44-46
2. Money and Government in the Roman Empire. pp. 222-225
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Septimius Severus 93. ric.4.ss.93
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part I: Pertinax to Geta. p. 104, no. 93