VICTORIAE BRITTANICAE

275, Lot: 108. Estimate $500. Sold for $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ Sestertius (29mm, 21.43 g, 11h). Rome. Struck AD 211. Laureate head right / VICTORIAE BRITTANICAE, two Victories standing facing one another, placing small round shield on palm; two captives seated at base of palm. RIC IV 818. Near VF, dark brown patina, minor edge split. Rare.

Property of Princeton Economics acquired by Martin Armstrong. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 50 (23 June 1999), lot 1574; Frederick S. Knobloch Collection (Stack's, 1 May 1980), lot 897.

In AD 208 Septimius Severus, together with the entire imperial family (his wife Julia Domna and their sons Caracalla and Geta), set out for Britain, where the situation on the northern frontier demanded urgent attention. He was to spend the last two and a half years of his life in the island province and was destined never to return to Rome. Together with his elder son, the co-emperor Caracalla, he campaigned vigorously beyond the imperial frontier, penetrating far into Scotland. The line of their marching-camps can still be detected today by aerial photography. Severus also restored Hadrian's Wall, the northern frontier of the province, which was in serious need of renovation now that more than eighty years had elapsed since its original construction.