Unrecorded Legionary Aureus

CNG 112, Lot: 637. Estimate $3000. Sold for $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. AV Aureus (20mm, 7.17 g, 12h). Legionary series. Rome mint. Struck AD 193. IMP CAE · L · SEP · SE-V · PERT · AVG, laureate head right / LEG IIII FL, legionary aquila between two signa, TR P COS in exergue. Unpublished as an aureus, but cf. RIC IV 8 for denarius of this type. Scratches and edge marks from prior mount. VF. Apparently unique.

Ex Phil Peck (“Morris”) Collection; Peus 284 (9 December 1974), lot 990.

Legio IV (or IIII) Flavia Felix (”Lucky Flavian”) was raised circa AD 70 by Vespasian, using a core of veterans of the Legio IV Macedonica, which had been disbanded due to its poor performance during the AD 69 Batavian Revolt. The new legion’s symbol was a lion. IV Flavia Felix was stationed in Moesia Superior and eventually settled at a permanent fortress at Singidunum (modern Belgrade, Serbia) on the Danube, from whence detachments fought in Domitian’s and Trajan’s Dacian campaigns. Legio IV was one of the first units to declare for Septimius Severus when he made his bid for the throne in April AD 193, and it was among the units honored for loyalty on his initial coinage of that year. According to Cassius Dio (LXVI, 56, 7), Severus paid an accession donative of 250 silver denarii per soldier; it may be supposed that the legionary coins were minted for this occasion and that officers were paid this amount in gold (10 aurei), accounting for the relative rarity of gold to silver in legionary issues. In AD 195, Severus placed his brother-in-law C. Julius Avitus Alexianus, husband of Julia Maesa, in command of Legio IV. The “Felix Legion” named in the popular film “Gladiator” was apparently based on IV Flavia Felix, although the legion’s banners in the film show a lion and the numeral III (there was no actual “III Felix”). While rare silver denarii naming IV Flavia Felix are known (RIC 8, RSC 264), this legionary aureus is apparently unique.