CNG 87, Lot: 1101. Estimate $300. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Philip I. AD 244-249. Æ Sestertius (28mm, 16.57 g, 12h). Ludi Saeculares issue. Rome mint, 6th officina. 10th emission, AD 249. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Roma seated facing within octastyle temple façade. RIC IV 164 corr. (rev. legend); Banti 52. Near EF, dark brown patina, typical squared flan.

Continuing the tradition of Claudius and Antoninus Pius before him, the celebration of the Secular Games at the end of every century since the founding of Rome culminated during the reign of Philip I, as the city celebrated her 1,000th anniversary in AD 248. The legends on these issues almost exclusively read SAECVLARES AVGG, and feature a similar iconography from previous games, such as the she-wolf suckling the twins, the various wild beasts paraded through the amphitheater, and a cippus inscribed for the preservation of the memory of these events.