281, Lot: 405. Estimate $150. Sold for $205. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Otacilia Severa. Augusta, AD 244-249. Æ Sestertius (28mm, 14.89 g, 11h). Rome mint, 4th officina. 9th emission of Philip I, AD 248. Diademed and draped bust right / SAECVLARES AVGG, hippopotamus walking right. RIC IV 200a (Phillip I); Banti 13. Near VF, green and brown patina, roughness.

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.