Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Æ35 - Septimius Severus ΙΛΙΕΩΝ
| Issuer | Ilium (Conventus of Adramyteum) |
|---|---|
| Year | 193-211 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Bronze |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Heracles standing right, holding a wreath in his extended right hand and a club in his left, with the Nemean lion skin draped over his right arm. He faces the Trojan princess Hesione, who stands to the left. Behind Hesione rises a tower, alluding to the walls of Troy from which she was rescued. In the lower field, waves and a sea monster are depicted beneath the figures, referencing the mythological episode of her exposure. The reverse legend names the issuing city of Ilium in the genitive. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (193-211) |
| Additional information |
Ilium — the city built on or near the ruins of ancient Troy — leveraged its mythological prestige aggressively under the Severan dynasty, issuing civic bronzes that tied the emperor's legitimacy to the Trojan ancestry Romans had claimed since the Republic. Septimius Severus, who needed every legitimizing tool available after seizing power in the civil wars of 193, was a receptive audience for such flattery.
The Conventus of Adramyteum administered a stretch of the Troad that included Ilium, and civic bronzes from this jurisdiction are underrepresented in major collections relative to the better-documented Pergamene issues.