Secular Games of AD 204
Dedicated to Hercules and Bacchus

Triton XX, Lot: 785. Estimate $20000. Sold for $21000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.26 g, 5h). Rome mint. Struck AD 194. L SEPT SEV P–ERT AVG IMP II, laureate head right / DIS AVSPI–CIB T–R P II, COS II P P in exergue, Hercules, leaning on club held in right hand, lion’s skin draped over left arm, and Bacchus, holding oenochoe over panther in right hand, thyrsus in left, each standing left. RIC IV 25; Calicó 2445; BMCRE 58; Biaggi 1069. EF, toned, reverse slightly off center.

From the Continental Collection. Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 67 (2 May 1994), lot 577.

Septimius dedicated the secular games of AD 204 to both Hercules and Bacchus, the patron deities of the emperor’s hometown of Lepcis Magna in modern-day Lybia. Dio (77.16.3) records that Septimius also built an enormous temple to the gods, although he does not specify where.