Hurryin' Hoosiers - Spectacular Portraits of Septimius Severus & Julia Domna...and a couple of my coins.

[Marsyas Mike]

This past summer I passed through Indiana University in Bloomington, my alma mater.  Although I didn't have much time, I decided to duck into the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art where I dimly recall there were busts of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna.  Glad I did - these are spectacular:  

 

These are considered as being some of the finest Roman imperial busts in the USA - and I think I'd agree with this.  Here they are individually (my photos, so feel free to draw spectacles on 'em):

 

 

 Next to them is a bust of Clodius Albinus that is almost as nice - my photo came out lousier than usual, so I will leave you wanting more! 

Here are a couple of links pertaining to these busts:

https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=75.33.1

https://www.academia.edu/45309783/_Grounding_the_Ungrounded_The_Paired_Portrait_Busts_of_Septimius_Severus_and_Julia_Domna_in_the_Eskenazi_Museum_of_Art_Indiana_University_In_Roman_Sculpture_in_Context_edited_by_P_D_De_Staebler_and_A_Hrychuk_Kontokosta_Boston_Archaeological_Institute_of_America_2020_141_157 

If you're in the Midwest, well worth a drive to the Hoosier Heartland to view these.  There are other interesting Greco-Roman things as well, including a small collection of Roman coins, badly displayed in a horizontal case - hard to see, but better than nothing. 

****************************************************************************************************************************************** 

Now for my coins - not nearly as spectacular in terms of portraiture, but I recently got a pair of SS-JD's from the provinces that are kind of interesting, I think. 

Here is Septimius Severus from Tyana, featuring on the reverse Perseus with harpa and severed head of Medusa.  I had a hard time attributing this one, as it appears to be unpublished.  One of my better eBay scrounging finds this year, I think:

Septimius Severus Æ 22 Tyana, Cappadocia ЄTΔ  = Yr. 4 (195-196 A.D.) [A]Y Λ CЄΠ CЄOYHPOC, laureate head right / TYANЄ[ωNT Π T IЄP ACYΛOY] K AY, ЄT-Δ across fields. Perseus standing facing, head right, holding harpa in left hand and severed head of Medusa in right. (9.10 grams / 22 x 21 mm) eBay Aug. 2022  Attribution:  One other example: Zeus Numismatics Auction 10; Lot 488; 12 Jul 2020; same coin on ancientcoinage.org site where it is noted as unpublished. For a similar type with harpa and Medusa's head in opposite hands see:  Wildwinds and  Naumann Auction 72; Lot 335; 2 December 2018 Lindgren I A1741A = CNG 51, lot 971.

Here's Julia Domna from Perga / Perge:

Julia Domna Æ 17 Perga / Perge, Pamphylia (c. 193-217 A.D.) IOVΛIA Δ[OMNA CЄ], draped bust right / ΠЄP[Γ]AIΩN, Tyche standing left, holding rudder and cornucopia.  SNG BN 434=Waddington 3363; BMC 35. (3.87 grams / 17 x 16 mm) eBay Aug. 2022 Attribution Notes:  Found only  three of this type, all auctions via acsearch.  SNG/Waddington /BMC attribution comes from two of these (Naumann and Zeus Numismatics).  The third auction was not attributed (Savoca).  Although presumably scarce, none of these three were reverse die-matches to this one, but they were possible obverse matches (plus one with a Diana reverse).

Hoping @dougsmit  sees this one - not only is he a Septimius Severus/Julia Domna fan, he is a fellow-Hoosier as well.  Go Big Red. 

Feel free to unleash your Severans, imperial busts, Bobby Knight throwing a chair, whatever. 
 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Marsyas Mike
Tidying up

[Spaniard]

Great Septimius Severus find! Nice patina too....

Here's a pretty (imo) portrait of that clever lady.  

Julia Domna. Augusta, AD 193-217. AR Denarius (3,84g). Rome mint.

Struck under Septimius Severus, circa AD 200-207.

Obverse.JVLIA AVGVSTA Draped bust right

Reverse.PIETAS AVGG Pietas standing left, holding acerrum (incence box) and dropping incense onto lighted and garlanded altar to left.

RIC IV 572 (Septimius); RSC 150.

[Al Kowsky]

The two marble busts are impressive 🤩. I love the wig Julia is wearing 😍. The denarius Spaniard posted has a finely engraved portrait of Julia. Some of the smaller museums in America are loaded with real treasures. I've got many portrait coins of Severus, so I'll post the only bronze provincial in my collection.

            

THRACE, Augusta Traiana. Septimius Severus, AD 193-211. Reverse: Homonoia at altar. AE 27, 15.51 gm, 6 h. Varbanov 993.

[Ryro]

Very cool coins!

Here are some of my best portraits of my fav empirical couple.

This first one is no longer in my collection. It was gifted to a pal:

 

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Ryro

[Spaniard]

@Ryro....What was the 1st coin?

Barbarous?.....Neat portraits!

[dougsmit]

Pal, here, not Ryro.  The coin changed a bit when treated for what was a bit flaky start of bronze disease and is hopefully now recovering.  I saw fit to show the Domna side as the obverse since the male figure is Herakles and only looks like Septimius Severus (Who knew he looked like a god?).  

 IOVΛIA ΔOMNA CЄΒA / ЄΙΡΗΝΟΠΟΛITΩ]N ЄΤ ΔΜΡ

The coin is not barbarous but a perfectly normal style of the Provincial city Eirenopolis listed in Sear as number 2437.  At present (for how long???) it is the last coin added to my collection.  I don't know if there will be more.  Rather than writing a bunch here that will bore everyone, I'll link to a coin matching sold by Roma a year ago. 

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=8461362

It, like mine, relies on die link evidence to give the complete legends. The chip missing from the Ryro gift made it possible for me to accept it.  Without the chip, the full date DMP and lack of wear would make this coin exceptional and expensive.  Thankfully (?) the market discriminates heavily against broken coins.  A little searching found the full legend example that failed to sell with a start of 140 euros.  I don't know if it is still available but it is worth that price, IMO, despite the fact that it has more wear than is fashionable today or that is shown on mine.  Thank you Ryro.  This is a suitable coin if it is to be my last.    

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=1223&lot=202

This post really hurt me.  I was unaware of the statues of SS and JD at IU.  I was born in Indiana and in 1966 dated a young lady who was a student at IU so I was familiar with the campus (I went to Wabash, an all men's school not far away).  A little research showed that the statues were donated thirty years after I was there so I did not just miss them.  I never again plan to be in Indiana but am very impressed by the policies on images as posted by the museum.   I would love to see what they have.  I wonder if they have coins.  I still have the three coins I held back when I sold my first collection.  They came from the time when I was buying coins in high school and college and the dealer who bought my collection would pay no more from them than the ordinary ones in the lot so I kept them. 

First is what I have often referred to as 'My Favorite Coin'.  It has its own page so that story is not repeated here.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac6.html

Next was a coin from a junk box (usually $2 as I recall) which also had the COSI obverse as explained in the above link.  To this day, I have not seen another with this reverse showing this style chair supports.  No one cares.   I did.

 

The third retained coin also came from the early 80's junk box days.  It was my first Julia Domna but was made less marketable by being overstruck on an earlier coin.  My imagination says I see Commodus' eye  on the obverse???  I also would like to see other coins from this portrait die.  Again my imagination says that the portrait rather resembles Manlia Scantilla.  Was this one of the first Domna denarii before the mint knew her face?  Its a nice story even if not a provable fact. 

Not bored yet?  I have at least 500 more and my group is nothing compared to others here.  There was a time no one would stoop to collecting Septimius so I could afford his coins if I ignored the comments by some dealers about how worthless they were.  Those were the good old days.  

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by dougsmit

[Alegandron]

21 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

This past summer I passed through Indiana University in Bloomington, my alma mater. 

Mine also, and well as my Grandparent's.

Fun times.

[DLTcoins]

I'm an IU Bloomington alum as well. It was so long ago that there were only 10 schools in the Big Ten!

Edited September 17, 2022 by DLTcoins

[Marsyas Mike]

Thank you so much for sharing those marvelous Septimius Severus & Julia Domna coins, @Ryro @Al Kowsky @Spaniard and @dougsmit - there is so much beautiful material out there for these rulers, imperial and provincial.  

And wow, that @Alegandron and @DLTcoins are fellow Hoosiers is welcome news indeed.  And yep, there were only 10 in the Big 10 when I was there, and Bobby Knight was still coaching basketball.  It was right after I graduated that I got my first ancient, a Septimius Severus denarius, way back in 1987 - it is still one of my favorites: 

My most recent SS denarius was picked up last month - the only time I've deliberately bought a fourree - but I've wanted one of these posthumous types for a long time and I figured this was the only way I could afford one: 

Finally, 

On 9/17/2022 at 9:32 AM, dougsmit said:

This post really hurt me.  I was unaware of the statues of SS and JD at IU.  I was born in Indiana and in 1966 dated a young lady who was a student at IU so I was familiar with the campus (I went to Wabash, an all men's school not far away).  A little research showed that the statues were donated thirty years after I was there so I did not just miss them.  I never again plan to be in Indiana but am very impressed by the policies on images as posted by the museum.   I

Well @dougsmit I never mean to cause hurt with my posts! 😉 But you should reconsider at journey out to the heart of the heart of the country (as William H. Gass calls it) - these Severen busts are really worth a nostalgia trip to the Hoosier state - maybe look up an old girlfriend! The coin display at IU is not exactly the highlight of the collection - it is hard to get close to them and therefore hard to see and therefore photograph, but here's my effort (there's even a Faustina for @Roman Collector) - 

Finally, for you Hoosiers, I am happy to report that from my visit this past summer, I can assure one and all that the Nick's Burgers at Nick's are still spectacular (nobody, and I mean nobody ever, that I am aware, calls it "Nick's English Hut").  Anyway, from their website - like everything in Bloomington, fancier than it used to be (outdoor dining!) but intact - 

https://nicksenglishhut.com/gallery/

 

 

[Etcherdude]

@Marsyas Mike I can see why your Septimius Severus is still one of your favorites, I think the portrait is mighty nice.

[O-Towner]

Here's a Sept Severus / Julia Domna stare-down type from Markianopolis:

Rev: Apollo standing facing raising right arm above head and holding bow; E above quiver to left, serpent-entwined stump to right

Ref: Varbanov 852

[Alegandron]

10 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

I was there, and Bobby Knight was still coaching basketball.

Was there in '76 and '81 when IU won the NCAA Basketball.  🙂  Also, was in the Stadium for the Little 500 during movie "Breaking Away"

Great times at IU (better than Wabash, and certainly SO much better than Purdue... and also UK)  😄 😄 😄 

RR Anon AR Heavy Denarius -Quadrigatus - Didrachm 225-215 BCE Incuse Roma Janus Jupiter Cr 28-3 S 31

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Alegandron

[DLTcoins]

I matriculated in '77 and finally graduated in '88, a slacker installment plan of sorts. I must have been at IU with both @Marsyas Mike and @Alegandron. I have wonderful memories of the '81 and '87 championship seasons. I also remember stopping between classes to watch scenes from Breaking Away being filmed. The high point, I think, was a lecture by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As I recall, the first several rows of the Auditorium were filled with saffron-robed monks. The Dalai Lama's brother was an IU professor. The last time I was in Bloomington, ten years ago, I barely recognized the place. So much had changed! My hangout in the day was the Bluebird. I was tempted to drop in but I was afraid of somehow losing the Bluebird in my head. In '85 I lived just two blocks from Nick's and used to pop in on occasion for a 'pound' of brew and Late Night with David Letterman. Fun memories! 

Edited September 19, 2022 by DLTcoins

[Marsyas Mike]

8 hours ago, Alegandron said:

Was there in '76 and '81 when IU won the NCAA Basketball.  🙂  Also, was in the Stadium for the Little 500 during movie "Breaking Away"

Great times at IU (better than Wabash, and certainly SO much better than Purdue... and also UK)  😄 😄 😄 

 

7 hours ago, DLTcoins said:

I matriculated in '77 and finally graduated in '88, a slacker installment plan of sorts. I must have been at IU with both @Marsyas Mike and @Alegandron. I have wonderful memories of the '81 and '87 championship seasons. I also remember stopping between classes to watch scenes from Breaking Away being filmed. The high point, I think, was a lecture by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As I recall, the first several rows of the Auditorium were filled with saffron-robed monks. The Dalai Lama's brother was an IU professor. The last time I was in Bloomington, ten years ago, I barely recognized the place. So much had changed! My hangout in the day was the Bluebird. I was tempted to drop in but I was afraid of somehow losing the Bluebird in my head. In '85 I lived just two blocks from Nick's and used to pop in on occasion for a 'pound' of brew and Late Night with David Letterman. Fun memories! 

Fellow Hoosiers!  I'm jealous I missed the Breaking Away shoot - Cutters!  But I was still in high school.  What a great movie.  As for slacking, if I had it to do over again, I would've stretched college out three or eight years or so longer.  I was in a hurry back then, for no apparent reason.  Somebody said youth is wasted on the young.  Yep. 

I was there from '83 to '86.  Not really a sports fan, but it is hard to be a Hoosier and not get caught up in the basketball some:  

"The 1985–86 Hoosiers were profiled in a best-selling book A Season on the Brink. To write it Knight granted author John Feinstein almost unprecedented access to the Indiana basketball program, as well as insights into Knight's private life. The following season, in 1986–87, the Hoosiers were led by All-American Steve Alford and captured a share of the Big Ten title. The team won Indiana's fifth national championship against Syracuse in the 1987 NCAA tournament with a game-winning jump shot by Keith Smart with five seconds of play remaining in the championship game."  Wikipedia

Well, Steve Alford lived on my floor in Read Dorm his freshman (my sophomore) year - Knight made all the freshman players live in the dorm.  I saw Alford exactly once during that year (in the dorm, I mean).  And I was there for The Season on the Brink, and even the Bob Knight chair-throwing event (no, I was not at the game), but I missed the '87 championship and the Breaking Away shoot...my timing has never been great.  The thing I really regret is not hanging around REM when they recorded Lifes Rich Pageant in Bloomington...I was too "busy."  

But as for The Bluebird, @DLTcoins - oh yeah.  Great place.  Didn't go to Nick's much until after I graduated - to me it was for paunchy old guys in red sweaters.  Which is what I turned into, and since it hasn't changed much, I still drop by when in town, paunchy and red-sweater'd.  And Mother Bear's...but the rest of Bloomington is starting to look like an avenue of boutiques.  Three great used bookstores now down to one part-timer.  Don't get me started...

9 hours ago, O-Towner said:

Here's a Sept Severus / Julia Domna stare-down type from Markianopolis:

Rev: Apollo standing facing raising right arm above head and holding bow; E above quiver to left, serpent-entwined stump to right

Ref: Varbanov 852

That's a great looking face-to-face husband-and-wife you got there @O-Towner.  I'm almost embarrassed to share this one, but it is the only Septimius Severus twofer I have - I found it in my local dealer's junk box.  That's a temple on the reverse, believe it or not:

S. Severus & Caracalla    Æ 23 (208 A.D.)  Berytus, Phoenicia [IMPP CAESS SEVER ANT AVGG] Confronted laureate, draped, and cuirassed busts / [DEC-ENNAL ANT COS III COL BER], Astarte  in temple, crowned by Nike on column. BMC 122-5. Lindgren III 1381. (10.84 grams / 23 mm) AZ Nov. 29, 2019 

Notes:  "This issue was struck in 208 AD to commemorate the decennalia of Caracalla's elevation to Augustus." CNG Elect. Auction 130 Lot 288, 04.01.2006

 

 

[Alegandron]

14 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

Well, Steve Alford lived on my floor in Read Dorm his freshman (my sophomore) year - Knight made all the freshman players live in the dorm. 

LOL, Isaiah Thomas was on MY Floor my sophomore year in Foster Quad!  He was nice, down to earth, and kinda shy to chat with. I also had Dave Harangody (all Big Ten Tight End), and a bunch of the Hockey Club on our floor... bad-as, FUN floor that year!  Several times a week, a bunch of us would have lunch at the dorm cafeteria... Mark Cuban was in Foster (not my floor), and would lunch with us... great guy.

 

14 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

And Mother Bear's...

The best pizza!  Miss that.

[Alegandron]

22 hours ago, DLTcoins said:

Fun memories! 

Wonder if we were in any classes together.  I practically minored in Prof. J. Rufus Fears' Ancients courses!  He filled my Electives requirements and more!

Edited September 20, 2022 by Alegandron

[Alegandron]

RI Septimus Severus 193-211 AR Denarius Genius Sacrificing

 

RI Julia Domna 193-195 CE AR Den Vesta Palladium

[Marsyas Mike]

Just now, Alegandron said:

Wonder if we were in any classes together.  I practically minored in Prof. J. Rufus Fears Ancients courses!  He filled my Electives requirements and more!

OMG - I was a moron and only took one class from Professor Fears.  It was incredible - Ancient Greek history in one of those gigantic tiered lecture halls - 300 students?  On the day he gave the lecture on Thermopylae he timed it so the last stand was at the moment the class ended.  You know how noisy those lecture halls got five minutes before class was over - everybody shuffling together their stuff to leave.  Not this time!  Fears - who as I recall was not an especially commanding physical presence - a short, rotund guy with a kind of high-pitched voice, kinda like Truman Capote in his later years.  But this didn't matter - Fears had the mind, and the gift for historical tale-telling - he was absolutely captivating.  When he finished the Thermopylae lecture ..."and then all the Greeks died" (or however he put it) - you could hear a pin drop.  Everybody - and I mean everybody - was stock still, glued to their seat even as the clock ran out.  It was one of the most profound educational moments I've ever experienced...and I took a lot of classes in giant classrooms like that.  

So why didn't I take more classes from him?  Because I was young and dumb and took classes based on how cool the course name was in the catalogue.  Valuable lesson:  professors who come up with clever names four their courses are often not very good teachers.  IU had a lot of tenured deadwood in the History Dept. in those days.  Yep, learned that far too late.  

Isaiah Thomas?  Yikes.  I was so goofy the athletes and I sort of went in different orbits.  I dimly remember being terrified of the girls' volleyball team - the freshmen were in my dorm as well - they were all 7 feet tall and right out of a Beach Boys song...

I did see Uwe Blab's foot up close once - I was sitting on the floor in Ballantine Hall when he walked by - Dingo cowboy boots, about a size 18 triple wide!  

 

[DLTcoins]

1 hour ago, Alegandron said:

Wonder if we were in any classes together.  I practically minored in Prof. J. Rufus Fears' Ancients courses!  He filled my Electives requirements and more!

I was a double major in Anthropology and English. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be Indiana Jones or Jack Kerouac. There were also quite a few Film Studies classes in the mix. I think I was on 'hiatus' during most of your tenure, though I was still in Bloomington. I re-enrolled in the summer of '86.

[ambr0zie]

My favorite Septimius Severus and Domna portraits are on the same coin.

Moesia Inferior. Marcianopolis. Septimius Severus, with Julia Domna AD 193-211.
Pentassarion Æ
28 mm, 11,42 g
Septimius Severus, with Julia Domna. AD 193-211. Moesia, Marcianopolis.
Flavius Ulpianus, legatus consularis. Struck AD 210-211. Æ Pentassarion .
AV K Λ CEΠ CEYHΡOC IOYΛIA ΔOMNA CEB; Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Septimius Severus and draped bust of Julia Domna facing one another / ΥΦΛ ΟΥΛΠΙΑΝΟΥ ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ; Tyche standing left, holding rudder and cornucopia; Є (mark of value) to left. H&J, Marcianopolis 6.15.35.4; AMNG I 601; Varbanov 868; Moushmov 411.

 

 

[Alegandron]

10 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

OMG - I was a moron and only took one class from Professor Fears.  It was incredible - Ancient Greek history in one of those gigantic tiered lecture halls - 300 students?  On the day he gave the lecture on Thermopylae he timed it so the last stand was at the moment the class ended.  You know how noisy those lecture halls got five minutes before class was over - everybody shuffling together their stuff to leave.  Not this time!  Fears - who as I recall was not an especially commanding physical presence - a short, rotund guy with a kind of high-pitched voice, kinda like Truman Capote in his later years.  But this didn't matter - Fears had the mind, and the gift for historical tale-telling - he was absolutely captivating.  When he finished the Thermopylae lecture ..."and then all the Greeks died" (or however he put it) - you could hear a pin drop.  Everybody - and I mean everybody - was stock still, glued to their seat even as the clock ran out.  It was one of the most profound educational moments I've ever experienced...and I took a lot of classes in giant classrooms like that.  

So why didn't I take more classes from him?  Because I was young and dumb and took classes based on how cool the course name was in the catalogue.  Valuable lesson:  professors who come up with clever names four their courses are often not very good teachers.  IU had a lot of tenured deadwood in the History Dept. in those days.  Yep, learned that far too late.  

Isaiah Thomas?  Yikes.  I was so goofy the athletes and I sort of went in different orbits.  I dimly remember being terrified of the girls' volleyball team - the freshmen were in my dorm as well - they were all 7 feet tall and right out of a Beach Boys song...

I did see Uwe Blab's foot up close once - I was sitting on the floor in Ballantine Hall when he walked by - Dingo cowboy boots, about a size 18 triple wide!  

 

I recall MANY classes like that with Fears.  Incredible lecturer, and he knew how to express historical drama, and the right timing to capture huge audiences.  I vividly remember the Battle of Cannae with him (among several other historical dramas). 

I started with classes of perhaps 30-50, and ended my Sr year with him completely filling those lecture theaters... 

[Alegandron]

8 hours ago, DLTcoins said:

I was a double major in Anthropology and English. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be Indiana Jones or Jack Kerouac. There were also quite a few Film Studies classes in the mix. I think I was on 'hiatus' during most of your tenure, though I was still in Bloomington. I re-enrolled in the summer of '86.

Mine was Finance.

[Marsyas Mike]

9 hours ago, DLTcoins said:

I was a double major in Anthropology and English. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be Indiana Jones or Jack Kerouac. There were also quite a few Film Studies classes in the mix. I think I was on 'hiatus' during most of your tenure, though I was still in Bloomington. I re-enrolled in the summer of '86.

11 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

Mine was Finance.

I was a Journalism major - the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism, which was top-ranked back then.  Since then it got rolled into the School of Communications and Ernie Pyle Hall was turned into an undergrad greeting center or some such thing.   My senior year I picked up a double major in history, since I'd taken so many history electives, my pointless eagerness to graduate on time made my sr. year far too packed.  Neither degree was practical for me - I didn't have enough ambition or interest to do much with them.  My interest in journalism was never very strong to begin with, but it was a hard school to get through back then and I'm glad I did it.  I take more lit classes and better history classes if I had it to do over again.   I graduated in spring '86, so I was leaving just as @DLTcoins was re-enrolling

13 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

I recall MANY classes like that with Fears.  Incredible lecturer, and he knew how to express historical drama, and the right timing to capture huge audiences.  I vividly remember the Battle of Cannae with him (among several other historical dramas). 

I started with classes of perhaps 30-50, and ended my Sr year with him completely filling those lecture theaters... 

I keenly regret not taking more classes from Prof. Fears.  There's a lecture series by him on YouTube (on American freedom; which I have not watched yet) - I recall his voice as being higher-pitched, but he may've done that to reach the whole hall?  Or more likely, my memory's decaying!   His appearance is about like I recall, though he was younger than in the video when I took his class  - kinda looks like David Crosby.  He has a Wikipedia page as well:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Rufus_Fears

 

24 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

Mine was Finance.

Most of my buddies were Business majors - that was a tough school too.  I used to make fun of them for the huge piles of dot-matrix pin-fed computer code they had to haul around.  Back in the '80s they were teaching business majors to code!   The Ernie Pyle School of Journalism was still using typewriters in the reporting labs (which was starting to embarrass them, I think).  I was wrong about almost everything back then, but I was not wrong about computers  - my dad said I should take computer classes (again, back before PCs were common, that meant learning to code).  I told him if computers were going to remain so difficult that you had to write code to use them, I would rather just get left behind and live with the squirrels!  Decades older than me, my dad was good with computers even back then, but I was right about learning to code.  Not so right about the squirrels though!  

[Marsyas Mike]

5 hours ago, ambr0zie said:

My favorite Septimius Severus and Domna portraits are on the same coin.

Moesia Inferior. Marcianopolis. Septimius Severus, with Julia Domna AD 193-211.
Pentassarion Æ
28 mm, 11,42 g
Septimius Severus, with Julia Domna. AD 193-211. Moesia, Marcianopolis.
Flavius Ulpianus, legatus consularis. Struck AD 210-211. Æ Pentassarion .
AV K Λ CEΠ CEYHΡOC IOYΛIA ΔOMNA CEB; Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Septimius Severus and draped bust of Julia Domna facing one another / ΥΦΛ ΟΥΛΠΙΑΝΟΥ ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ; Tyche standing left, holding rudder and cornucopia; Є (mark of value) to left. H&J, Marcianopolis 6.15.35.4; AMNG I 601; Varbanov 868; Moushmov 411.

 

 

That's an attractive coin.  I don't have that exact pairing, but I do have this Marcianopolis with Julia Domna and one of her boys with Tyche in her temple.  I recently spent some time re-attributing it; I'm finding my earlier attributions to be pretty sloppy!

Caracalla and Julia Domna by Quintilianus Æ Pentassarion (c. 213-216 A.D.) Moesia Inferior, Marcianopolis [ANT]ΩNINOC AVΓOVCTOC IOVΛI[A] | ΔOMNA, vis à vis draped busts / [VΠ KY]NTIΛIANOY MAΡKIANOΠOΛEITΩN, tetrastyle temple with Tyche within holding rudder and cornucopiae, Є in exergue. Attribution, Dimensions and Provenance: Hristova & Jekov 6.19.46.14; Varbanov 1052. Moushmov 500; AMNG I 693; (12.48 grams / 26 mm) eBay Sep. 2018  Die Matches:  Wildwinds, obv./ rev. "Varbanov 1052 (this coin)" obv. CNG auct. 228, Lot: 175 Note flaw:  ΔOMNA

 

[Valentinian]

The big geopolitical event of the 1990s was the fall of the Iron Curtain. Those "two busts vis-a-vis" coins of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna were rare until then. Those of us collecting in the 1990s saw a flood of coins from "Lower Moesia" come out. Look at nice catalog from the 1980s and you will probably see none.  Here is one I got in 1999:



28-27 mm. 
AVK CEΠT CEVHPOC IOYΛIA    (Autocrater Sept. Severus Julia)
ΔOMNA          (Domna)
   CEB        (Augusta)
VΦΛOYΛΠIANOVM APKIANOΠOΛITΩN  (Flavius Ulpianus at Marcianopolis)
Fortuna standing, holding rudder and cornucopia
E in upper left field for the denomination, 5.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Valentinian