Stater - Sauromates II Septimius Severus and Caracalla

Sauromates II ruled the Bosporan Kingdom as a client of Rome, and this stater — issued the year Septimius Severus and Caracalla held their joint consulship — reflects that dependency with unusual directness. The pairing of a local dynast with reigning emperors on Bosporan coinage was not decorative politics; it was a condition of the relationship, reinforced by the royal family's periodic residency in Rome as guests who could not easily refuse the invitation.

Bosporan electrum by this period contained significantly less gold than earlier issues, the alloy having degraded across generations of debasement while nominally maintaining the stater denomination.