CNG 87, Lot: 1104. Estimate $500. Sold for $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Otacilia Severa. Augusta, AD 244-249. Æ Sestertius (27mm, 19.12 g, 12h). Ludi Saeculares issue. Rome mint, 4th officina. 9th emission, AD 248. Draped bust right, wearing stephane / Hippopotamus standing right. RIC IV 200a (Philip I); Banti 13. VF, dark brown patina, minor roughness on obverse.

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.