From the Gemini IV Auction, Closed January 8, 2008.



                  Lot # 441 - Auction is closed.Estimate: US$750 / Price 
                  Realized: US$1250 
                  Septimius Severus. Silver denarius 



             



            Septimius Severus. (193-211 AD). Silver denarius (3.42 gm). Rome, 
            206 AD. SEVERVS PIVS AVG, head laureate right / LAETITIA TEMPORVM, 
            the spina of the Circus Maximus decorated as a ship facing left, 
            with the turning posts at its prow and stern, a sail mounted on the 
            central obelisk, and the spina’s other monuments visible in between; 
            above the ship, four quadrigas racing left; below, seven animals: an 
            ostrich at left and bear at right; between them a lion and a lioness 
            chasing a wild ass and a panther attacking a bison. BMCRE 343. RIC 
            274 (R2). Cohen 253 (60 Fr.). Very fine. 

            This famous type commemorates the chariot races and animal hunt that 
            took place on the seventh and final day of Severus’ Saecular Games 
            in 204 AD, as described in the inscriptional acts of those games 
            which were found in Rome in the 1870s and 1930s. Dio Cassius 
            describes the same animal hunt, but his epitomator has clumsily 
            omitted a large section of the preceding original text, wrongly 
            creating the impression that the hunt was held in 202 not 204 AD. 
            Both the inscriptional acts and Dio say that 700 beasts were killed, 
            one hundred each of the same seven animals that are depicted in the 
            coin type, namely lions, lionesses, panthers, bears, bisons, wild 
            asses, and ostriches. Dio also says that the receptacle from which 
            the beasts were released was shaped like a ship, and the coin type 
            suggests that the hunt must have taken place in the Circus Maximus 
            where the spina had also been fitted out as a ship. The coins 
            commemorating these games were not struck until 206 AD, two years 
            after the event, as is proved by the change from “draped bust” to 
            “head only” obverse type on the relevant coins of Caracalla, and by 
            other indications. For a fuller version of these arguments see C. 
            Clay’s note to lot 400 in Harlan J. Berk, 115th Buy or Bid Sale, 2 
            August 2000. 




      © 2005-2008 Gemini, LLC | Email: info@geminiauction.com

  ... Lot 441 sold for high bid of $1250 [ $1437.5, or approx 991.875 EUR, 733.125 GBP including the 15% buyers fee.] 

Gemini Auctions' results, text and images are re-used by the kind permission of:
    Freeman & Sear (www.freemanandsear.com)
 and Harlan J Berk (www.harlanjberk.com)