438, Lot: 558. Estimate $200. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Philip I. AD 244-249. Æ Sestertius (30mm, 19.28 g, 12h). Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games) issue, commemorating the 1000th anniversary of Rome. Rome mint, 1st officina. 10th emission, AD 249. IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / AETERNITAS AVG, S C in exergue, elephant advancing left, led by mahout, holding staff and goad. RIC IV 167a; Banti 8. VF, green and red-brown patina, some smoothing.

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 frequently read Saeculares Augg, 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.