ADVENTVI AVGusti FELICISSIMO. S. C.

This legend appears on the reverse of a large brass of Septimius Severus. The type represents the emperor on horseback, either alone, or preceded by a soldier on foot. - After having reestablished peace in the east

by the destruction of Pescennius Niger, and with the design of marching against Albinus, Severus returned to Rome, where his entry was magnificent. That was the same Felicissimus Adventus - "the most auspicious return" - which is alluded to here.
Capt. Smyth (p. 186) assigns the return to Rome which this device commemorates, to the year 196 of the Christian era; and adds - "The first public entry of Severus was under every possible demonstration of joy: yet he committed unheard-of cruelties. After commending the character of Commodus to the Senators, who had declared his memory infamous, he executed a number of their body, without trial; and Rome was filled with bloodshed. At the same time, however, he executed retributive justice on the insolent, venal, and treacherous Praetorians, whom he disarmed, degraded and ignominiously banished to the distance of a hundred miles from Rome."
In describing an Adventus coin of the elder Philip, whose equestrian figure is represented with the same "extraordinary disproportion between the steed and its rider," as is exhibited on the above reverse of Severus, the intelligent writer above quoted, obverses (p. 266) - "the Emperor is probably mounted on the Asturco, or ambling nag, as a more appropriate emblem of returning peace, than the Equus bellator, or charger." - This is a shrewd conjecture; but it does not fully account for the under-sized horses on which we see emperors mounted, in various types of the Roman mint. These, indeed, are for the most part relatively diminutive, whether the imperial rider is wearing the pacific toga, or in the garb of war - under the legend ADVENTVS, or that of EXERCITVS.