AncientCoinArt.com Presents

Nikopolis AE27 Moushmov 1009-A of Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus AE27 of Nikopolis ad Istrum. Magistrate Pollenius Auspex. AV KAI CEP CEVEHPOC. laureate head right / VPA POL AVCPIKOC NIKOPOLI PROC, Hercules standing right with club, lion skin & bow, hunting (the Stymphalian birds).

Lot No.2649. VF and Rare.

$ 275.

Sorry, this lot has been sold.

As Moushmov 1013 but Hercules holds a bow. Unlisted in Verbanov.

Issued by magistrate Pollenius Auspex who evidently held office for only a short time at the beginning of Septimius' reign, before being transferred to Britain, where he was Governor from c200 to 205 AD after the defeat of Clodius Albinus.

Auspex rates a mention by Cassius Dio:
This Auspex was the cleverest man imaginable for jokes and chit-chat, for despising all mankind, gratifying his friends, and taking vengeance on an enemy. Many bitter and witty sayings of his are reported, addressed to various persons, many even to Severus himself. Here is one of the latter kind. When the emperor was enrolled in the family of Marcus, Auspex said: 'I congratulate you, Caesar, upon finding a father,' implying that up to that time he had been fatherless by reason of his obscure birth.

Septimius Severus was a general of great skill. Born in Africa in 146 AD, he married Julia Domna, it is said, who had a soothsayer's prediction that she would be married to an emperor. After Pertinax was killed and Didius Julianus won the throne by offering the greatest amount of money to the Praetorians, Septimius, by then the governor of Upper Pannonia, hurried to Rome with his Legions. Julianus was already dead by the time he got there in 193 AD. He disbanded the Praetorians, and then defeated his rival Pescennius Niger in the east, then Clodius Albinus in the west in 197 AD, finally dying of natural causes in Britain in 211 AD.