Gold Aureus of Septimius Severus, 7.16 g.
Title
Gold Aureus of Septimius Severus, 7.16 g.
Creator
Septimius Severus
Date
c. 209 CE
Description
Obverse: Laureate bust of Septimius Severus facing right; SEVERVS PIVS AVG(VSTVS): Severus Pius Augustus.
Reverse: Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Geta seated facing left on platform, officer behind; in front, Liberalitas; on steps, citizen; LIBERALITAS, in exergue, AVGG (AVGVSTORVM abbreviated) VI: sixth liberality of the Augusti.
Style/Period: Roman Empire
In 209 CE Septimius Severus finally elevated his second son, Geta, to the rank of Augustus (see 91.194), which provided the occasion for his sixth and last liberality or congiarium to the people of Rome. Geta served as co-emperor with Severus and his brother, Caracalla, until the death of Severus in 211 CE, and then very briefly as co-emperor with Caracalla until Caracalla murdered him in 212 CE.
From the beginning of his reign, Severus had been particularly careful to cater to the Romans, not only with his lavish building program but also with liberalities, celebrations, and games. The reverse of this coin depicts not only Liberalitas, the personification of the liberality (see 91.171), but also the three Augusti themselves actively supervising the distribution of their gifts to the people.
The obverse, with its Antonine-style portrait of Severus and the name Pius, adopted by Severus as a sign of his relationship to and reverence for Antoninus Pius, refers to Severus' dynastic pretensions of connection with the Antonine house.
-- Robin Emmanuel Bandy McNeill, LU '93
Bibliography: H. Mattingly and E.A. Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Empire IV.1: Pertinax to Geta (London 1936) 279.
From the beginning of his reign, Severus had been particularly careful to cater to the Romans, not only with his lavish building program but also with liberalities, celebrations, and games. The reverse of this coin depicts not only Liberalitas, the personification of the liberality (see 91.171), but also the three Augusti themselves actively supervising the distribution of their gifts to the people.
The obverse, with its Antonine-style portrait of Severus and the name Pius, adopted by Severus as a sign of his relationship to and reverence for Antoninus Pius, refers to Severus' dynastic pretensions of connection with the Antonine house.
-- Robin Emmanuel Bandy McNeill, LU '93
Bibliography: H. Mattingly and E.A. Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Empire IV.1: Pertinax to Geta (London 1936) 279.
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Bought from Abner Kreisberg, Sept. 21, 1970.
Identifier
91.197
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Roman, Empire, Septimius Severus
Files
Citation
Septimius Severus, “Gold Aureus of Septimius Severus, 7.16 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/300.