Sale: CNG 60, Lot: 1232. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 May 2002.  Sold For $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MYSIA, Pergamum. Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. 193-211 AD. Æ 45mm Medallion (48.28 gm). Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Septimius Severus on left vis à vis draped bust of Julia Domna on right / Altar of Zeus: Vaulted distyle shrine approached by steps; on each side of shrine, portico of four columns surmounted by two statues (on left portico statues of priestesses of Athena; on right portico statues of Poseidon and Cybele); in front of each portico, statue of humped bull on pedestal. Price and Trell 456, fig. 217 (same reverse die); SNG von Aulock -; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC Mysia pg. 152, 315, pl. XXX, 7 (same dies). Fine, brown patina, scattered corrosion. Rare and impressive. ($750)

Noted as a wonder of the world by the Latin author Lucius Ampelius, the great altar of Pergamum was thought to be the seat of Satan mentioned in Revelations:

”And to the angel of the Church in Pergamum write: These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest even when Satan's seat is... where Satan dwelleth..."

Revelations II:12-13

The reconstructed altar currently resides at the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. However, as elaborated in Price and Trell (pp. 122-3), "the die maker's image and conventions were not sufficiently analyzed" and thus the altar is not reconstructed true to form.