The SAECVLO FRVGIFERO COS II dupondius of Septimius Severus

[curtislclay]

Cohen 638 reports the following dupondius, citing the Herpin Sale of 1857:

IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG, Head of Septimius radiate r.

SAECVLO FRVGIFERO COS II S C, African divinity standing l., radiate, nude to waist, holding a caduceus and a trident or pitchfork.

This identical Herpin coin seems now to be in Berlin: it is a VF specimen, but a little off center on the reverse, so that only the bottom halves of the letters COS II are on flan, and they are rather weak.

Now this same type is also known on rare sestertii and very rare denarii and aurei of Septimius (see image of worn sestertius below), but on these denominations the date is always merely COS, i.e. 193, not COS II, 194. The type is known dated COS II, but only on coins of Septimius' Caesar Clodius Albinus, namely scarce sestertii and asses, rare denarii, and very rare aurei, as in the picture below.

So it seemed that this type was used for Septimius Severus in 193, but then transferred to Clodius Albinus in 194. In my Oxford thesis I therefore proposed that the Berlin coin had been slightly altered by its cleaner: the original date had been merely COS, and the cleaner had added the faint II following COS. The IMP on the obverse die seemed to require this conclusion, for by the time Septimius became COS II on 1 Jan. 194, he was no longer merely IMP, but rather IMP III !

[curtislclay]

However, a second specimen of Septimius' SAECVLO FRVGIFERO dupondius appeared in Lanz 121, 22 Nov. 2004, lot 438; see image from CoinArchives Pro below. This coin is from the same obverse die as the Berlin example, but from a different reverse die, whose date [C]OS II is clearly visible at 3-5 o'clock! Indeed I know that same reverse die from asses of Clodius Albinus, which confirm the date COS II. On the Septimius dupondius this die seems to be overstruck at 180 degree rotation on another die showing the same type: the letters SAEC from the undertype are visible at 1-3 o'clock. It's hard to be sure with so little surviving, but it appears that the die used for the undertype might be the same as the die used for the Berlin dupondius, a die that I have not yet found also used for Clodius Albinus. These two reverse dies must have been in rapid, alternate use with the same dupondius obverse die of Septimius, as Colin Kraay suggested to me in 1974, on the basis of a similar overstruck reverse on an As of Caracalla, explaining how such overstruck reverses, but with intact obverses, could occur with such relative frequency on Roman imperial coins.

Anyway, I had determined that the SAECVLO FRVGIFERO COS II asses of Clodius Albinus probably formed part of the mint's New Year issue of asses for 1 January 194, in which case they of course had to be produced in advance in December 193. So either then, or maybe early in 194, at least two of these SAECVLO FRVGIFERO COS II reverse dies of Albinus were also used with a dupondius die of Septimius of 193, which happened still to be in use. We know from another recent discovery that Septimius' own SAEC FRVGIF COS type was still in use late in 193, because on a denarius acquired by Rupert Pflaum, and another in worn condition in my own collection, that type is combined with an IMP II obverse die of Septimius, an acclamation that Septimius only won late in 193, for his defeat of Pescennius Niger at Cyzicus. Perhaps Rupert will be able to show that denarius again here: I know he showed it some years ago either here or in Numismatikforum, but I can't locate the relevant thread in either forum.

So I was wrong to think that the Berlin dupondius had been altered: its original date really was COS II. That combination of titles is hybrid, for by 1 Jan. 194 Septimius was already IMP III. It is not impossible, however, that the coin I imagined was actually struck and will turn up someday: an IMP dupondius of Septimius with his own SAECVLO FRVGIFERO reverse type, labeled just SAECVLO FRVGIFERO COS, not COS II !

This reverse type is interesting, for it only appeared this one time on Roman coins, in 193 and 194, and seems to be a reference to the African homeland of both Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. See the picture of a similar god below, radiate and with trident, on a coin struck under Augustus at Hadrumentum in Africa.

[Lerian]

Curtis,

I see that the "African deity" has been mention in the past as possibly being Ba`al Hammon and the Arnold catalogue
says; Part of Severus’ deliberate policy to advertise his African background by featuring the African deity Saeculum Frugiferum.

Would you agree?

[curtislclay]

Another type was struck for Clodius Albinus in 194, with the same legend SAECVLO FRVGIFERO COS II but showing a seated, bearded god wearing a tall headdress. That seated god appears to be Ba'al Hammon.

I don't know what name should be given to the radiate, youthful, standing god holding caduceus with wheat ears and trident. The identity of this god seemed to be unknown when I wrote my Oxford thesis in 1972, but I have not kept up with the bibliography on this question since then.

[septimus]

Very interesting development! Thanks for sharing.