Septimius Severus Silver Denarius, RIC IV Septimius Severus 248

Monetary Context and the Severan Denarius

The reign of Septimius Severus marked a transformative phase in Roman monetary history. Upon securing supreme power after the civil wars of AD 193 to 197, Severus faced enormous financial burdens driven by substantial pay increases for the legions, donatives to civil and military bodies, and extensive building programs across Rome and the provinces. To sustain these commitments, the imperial administration instituted a controlled reduction in the intrinsic metallic standard of the denarius. While maintaining a theoretical weight of approximately 3.2 to 3.3 grams, the silver purity of the denomination was reduced from the late Antonine standard of roughly seventy percent down to approximately fifty to fifty-five percent. This debasement enabled the Rome mint to produce vast quantities of silver coin without a corresponding increase in raw bullion supply. The type RIC IV Septimius Severus 248 belongs entirely to this post-reform monetary regime. Despite the reduced silver content, the denarius maintained strong acceptance throughout the empire, operating as the premier silver accounting unit and high-volume circulation medium across western and northern military frontiers and Mediterranean civil centers.

Mint Organization and Production at Rome

By AD 202, the production of imperial silver was again firmly centralized at the primary mint in Rome. During the earlier civil wars and eastern campaigns, provincial auxiliary mints operating at Alexandria, Emesa, and Laodicea ad Mare had supplied coin to Severan forces, but these eastern workshops were closed or redirected as administrative focus returned to Italy. RIC IV Septimius Severus 248 was struck exclusively at the capital workshop. The mint of Rome was organized into distinct officinae, or administrative workshops, each staffed by skilled celatores who engraved the iron dies and operarii responsible for casting blank flans and striking coins by hand. Production utilized bronze or iron dies subjected to tremendous mechanical pressure between manual hammer strikes. The execution of RIC IV Septimius Severus 248 shows the mature Severan court style of Rome, marked by refined drapery, realistic hair rendering, and balanced lettering, which easily differentiates these strikings from earlier provincial Severan denarii.

Obverse Design and Iconography

The obverse of RIC IV Septimius Severus 248 presents the head of Septimius Severus facing right, wearing the laurel wreath of victory and imperial office. Severus is depicted with his signature mature physiognomy: curly hair combed forward across the crown, prominent brow ridges, and a segmented, corkscrew-curled beard characteristic of his later portraits, which were intentionally sculpted to evoke Antonine precedents and associate his lineage with Marcus Aurelius. The ties of the laurel wreath fall naturally down the nape of the neck. Unlike varieties featuring bust truncation with paludamentum or cuirass, this standard type is catalogued primarily as a simple laureate head, focusing full visual attention on the sovereign profile and his adopted imperial identity.

Reverse Iconography: The Adventus Augustorum

The reverse of the type features a dynamic ceremonial composition celebrating the imperial adventus, or ceremonial arrival. Septimius Severus is represented in military dress, mounted upon a horse prancing toward the left. He raises his right hand in the traditional adlocutio or benevolent greeting gesture directed at the Roman populace and senate, while his left hand cradles a transverse spear resting against his shoulder. Preceding the imperial mount is a soldier walking to the left, wearing a helmet and carrying military gear, looking back toward the emperor and guiding the horse into the city. The Adventus was among the most symbolically charged ceremonies of the Roman state, symbolizing the peaceful return of victorious imperatores to the urban core and the restoration of order under divine favor. The presence of the soldier emphasizes the martial foundation of Severan rule and recalls the legions that accompanied the emperor on his long return journey from the eastern frontier.

Inscriptions and Epigraphic Analysis

The legends on RIC IV Septimius Severus 248 are concise and reflect the mature epigraphic formula adopted after AD 201. The obverse legend reads SEVERVS PIVS AVG, representing the nominative Severus Pius Augustus. The adoption of the cognomen Pius publicly underscored the emperor's claimed piety toward the gods, his family, and the memory of his self-adopted father Marcus Aurelius, replacing the longer victory titles such as Parthicus Maximus that had dominated his earlier coinage. On the reverse, the inscription reads ADVENT AVGG, abbreviating Adventus Augustorum, meaning the arrival of the Augusti. The doubling of the letter G in AVGG is a fundamental grammatical convention of Roman epigraphy denoting the plural number, referencing the collegial rule of Septimius Severus and his eldest son and co-Augustus, Caracalla. Even though only Septimius is depicted on this particular die, the legend affirms the joint dignity and harmonious partnership of both Augusti upon their entry into Rome.

Typology, Dating, and Chronological Placement

The broad chronological envelope assigned in the standard catalog of Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham spans AD 202 to 210, reflecting the overall duration of the SEVERVS PIVS AVG obverse legend. Within this wider timeframe, however, historical and typological evidence fixes the primary struck horizon of RIC IV Septimius Severus 248 to AD 202 or shortly thereafter. In that year, Septimius Severus returned to Rome from his prolonged campaigns against Parthia and his tour through Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, entering the city alongside Caracalla to celebrate his decennalia, marry Caracalla to Plautilla, and hold lavish triumphal games. Parallel adventus issues were produced for Caracalla, and the theme was repeated across various denominations including aurei and sestertii. Minor variations in engraving exist among surviving specimens, such as slight adjustments in the angle of the emperor's spear, the posture of the horse, and the exact arrangement of the soldier's drapery, reflecting individual die cutters working from a central design model.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Denarii of the SEVERVS PIVS AVG series circulated widely across the Roman world throughout the third century AD. Hoard finds from Britain, the Rhine frontier, the Danubian provinces, and North Africa consistently show that Severan denarii constituted the backbone of Roman silver circulation until the middle of the third century, when they were gradually displaced by the double denarius or radiate introduced under Caracalla. Due to their reduced silver fineness relative to Antonine issues, Severan coins were often retained in circulation longer rather than culled for hoarding or melting, conforming to standard Greshamite monetary patterns. Specimens of RIC IV Septimius Severus 248 appear in major third-century hoards such as the Shapwick and Dorchester deposits in Britain, demonstrating that these coins remained in commercial use for decades after their initial release at Rome.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. p. 219
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Septimius Severus 248. ric.4.ss.248
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume IV, Part I: Pertinax to Geta. p. 119, no. 248