Now photographing coins previously only scanned, I propose this one for our attention. Here is Septimius,
media vitae, surely before AD 205 (when
Aurelius Gallus was
still governor over in
Moesia Inferior), by a highly superior Bithynian engraver (at any rate, one working in
Bithynia), who gets the set of the eye relative to the nose, a mouth surely meant to convey both purposefulness and sensitivity, drapery that looks and feels like drapery, and, on the
reverse, a
Zeus with a really nice
head (anatomy a
bit vague in the pelvic
area). It didn't look nearly so
good in the crude scan.
• 12 09 03 AE 25 10.92g
axis 7:00 Iuliopolis,
Bithynia.
Septimius Severus, laureate, draped
bust to r. AV K L SEPTI SEVE[ROS PE? LK has pi sigma].
Rev.,
Zeus enthroned to l., with
scepter and
patera. IOULIOP OLITO and in
exergue N.
Lindgren &
Kovacs p. 9, no. 124, pl. 5, with reference,
BMC 5. Also
Rec Gén I, p. 386, no. 10, pl. LXIII, 9 (
rev. only). Iuliopolis,
Head says, HN 516, is sometimes Neokoron, too,** though we seem to know very little about it.
**
Head can't be right about everything; see Curtis's note correcting that assertion.
Pat L.
click to zoom
