The Dynastic Portrait Coins of Septimius Severus

— The Early Severans —

When Septimius Severus came to power in 193 A.D. he was self-conscious of his position, both as an outsider to the traditional aristocracy at Rome, he was a native of North Africa and married to a Syrian, and as a military leader who had gained Imperial power by virtue of his control of the legions of the East. Since the overthrow of Commodus, the last of the Antonine Emperors who had done so much to maintain stability over the Empire, Rome had undergone a brief but shocking period of civil war, where the throne of the world had appeared open to the highest bidder, or those with sufficient boldness, and the control of enough troops, to venture the gamble. Severus needed to offer something greater than these ‘rebels’; he needed to offer Rome a return to stability. With this in mind he bought a period of loyalty from the last of his rivals, Clodius Albinus, who made a bid for power from his base in Britain and Northern Gaul, by offering him a share in the Imperial power by making him Caesar to Severus’ Augustus. This gave Severus time to re-organise the Empire and to get his own hands more securely upon the machinery of Roman government.

In 196, Severus began to exploit one of the principal assets he possessed to ensure both the security of his own reign and the establishment of long-term Severan rule, his Family. Like Vespasian, the founder of the Flavian dynasty more than a century earlier, he had two healthy sons who could be educated in ruling and raised through the ranks to provide a guaranteed succession, the sine qua non of dynastic ambition.

Severus’ first move in this dynastic programme was the promotion to Caesar of his eldest son Antoninus, known as Caracalla from the hooded Gallic cloak he liked to wear and introduced to Rome. This move spelled the end of Clodius Albinus’s chances of succession; there was no way that he could compete with a ‘Prince of the Blood’. So, in desperation he declared himself emperor, but Severus’ control was now not to be defied, and at the beginning of 197 he marched the legions westward and Albinus was defeated and killed.

The promotion of Caracalla was celebrated with the issue of a gold aureus whose reverse advertises the young man’s position as the son of Severus. As we shall see below, the use of portraits as reverse types on Roman coins was not a new phenomenon, but the intensity of their usage and the high-level of artistic skill with which the Severan family depicted themselves and their unity makes these coins particularly attractive and valued today. These issues began, as we have said, with the raising of Caracalla to Caesar, and largely ended in 202, at the time of his marriage to Plautilla, by which event Severus no doubt hoped to secure the dynasty for a further generation.

The dynastic portrait coins were not issued in isolation, but formed a part of an ongoing, systematic and detailed representation of the Imperial family as reverse types in many differing scenes and situations. The full extent of the dynastic representation of the Severan dynasty on coins would fully justify an extensive study on its own. But, the beautiful portraits on both obverse and reverse, seen singly, in pairs, or even in threes, make these coins a high point in late-second and early-third century Roman numismatic art.

The dynastic portrait coins were struck in gold and silver only. The vast majority were minted at Rome, though a few types were struck at an uncertain Eastern mint traditionally identified as Laodicea ad Mare in Syria, though a recent challenge has been made to attribute these pieces to Antioch on the Orontes, also in Syria.

— Historical Development —

— The Catalogue —

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