SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS 193AD Ancient Authentic Roman Coin ZEUS i22682

Item: i22682

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Septimius Severus – Roman Emperor: 193-211 A.D. –

Bronze 17mm (2.42 grams) of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Moesia Inferior 193-211 A.D.

AV KAI CE CEVHPOC, laureate head right.

NIKOΠOΛI TΩN,
Zeus enthroned left, holding scepter and patera.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In the
ancient Greek

religion
,
Zeus

zews



zooss
;
Ancient Greek
:
Ζεύς;
Modern Greek
:
Δίας, Dias) was the “Father of Gods and men” (πατὴρ
ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε)
who ruled the Olympians of
Mount Olympus

as a father ruled the family. He was the
god of sky

and
thunder

in
Greek mythology
.
His
Roman

counterpart is
Jupiter

and
Etruscan

counterpart is Tinia
.

Zeus was the child of
Cronus

and
Rhea
,
and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to

Hera, although, at the
oracle of Dodona
,
his consort was
Dione
:
according to the Iliad
,
he is the father of
Aphrodite

by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and
heroic offspring, including
Athena
,
Apollo

and Artemis
,
Hermes
,
Persephone

(by Demeter
),
Dionysus
,
Perseus
,
Heracles
,
Helen of Troy
,
Minos
,
and the Muses

(by Mnemosyne
);
by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered

Ares,
Hebe

and Hephaestus
.

As
Walter Burkert

points out in his book, Greek Religion, “Even the gods who are not his
natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence.”
For the Greeks, he was the
King of the Gods
,
who oversaw the universe. As
Pausanias

observed, “That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men”. In
Hesiod’s Theogony

Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the
Homeric Hymns

he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the
thunderbolt
,
eagle
,
bull
,
and oak
.
In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer”
also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East
,
such as the
scepter
.
Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing,
striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated
in majesty.

Zeus, poetically referred to by the
vocative
Zeu pater (“O, father Zeus”),
is a continuation of *Di̯ēus,
the
Proto-Indo-European
god of the daytime sky,
also called *Dyeus
ph₂tēr (“Sky Father”).^[9]
The god is known under this name in
Sanskrit
(compare
Dyaus/Dyaus Pita
),
Latin
(compare
Jupiter
, from Iuppiter, deriving
from the
Proto-Indo-European
vocative *dyeu-ph₂tēr^[10]),
deriving from the basic form *dyeu– (“to shine”, and in its many
derivatives, “sky, heaven, god”).^[9]
And in
Germanic mythology
(compare *Tīwaz
>
Old High German language
Ziu,
Old Norse

Týr
), together with Latin deus,
dīvus and Dis (a variation of dīves^[11]),
from the related noun *deiwos.^[11]
To the Greeks and Romans, the god of the sky was also the supreme god. Zeus is
the only deity in the Olympic
pantheon
whose name has such a transparent
Indo-European etymology.

In

Roman mythology

,

Jupiter
or

Jove was the

king of the gods

, and the god of

sky and

thunder
. He

is

the equivalent of Zeus

in the

Greek pantheon

. He was called Iuppiter (or Diespiter)

Optimus Maximus (“Father God the Best and Greatest”). As the patron deity of

ancient

Rome
, he ruled over laws and social order. He was the chief god of the

Capitoline Triad

, with sister/wife

Juno

. Jupiter is also the father of the god

Mars

with Juno. Therefore, Jupiter is the grandfather of

Romulus and Remus

, the legendary founders of Rome. Jupiter was venerated in

ancient Roman religion

, and is still venerated in

Roman Neopaganism

. He is a son of

Saturn

, along with brothers

Neptune

and

Pluto

.

He is also the brother/husband of

Ceres

(daughter of Saturn and mother of

Proserpina
),

brother of Veritas

(daughter of Saturn), and father of

Mercury

.

Nicopolis ad Istrum was a

Roman

and Early

Byzantine

town founded by Emperor

Trajan
around

101–106, at the junction of the Iatrus (Yantra)

and the Rositsa

rivers, in memory of his victory over the

Dacians
. Its

ruins are located at the village of

Nikyup

, 20 km north of

Veliko Tarnovo

in northern

Bulgaria
.

The town reached its apogee during the reigns of Trajan,

Hadrian
, the

Antonines

and the

Severan dynasty

.

The classical town was planned according to the orthogonal system. The

network of streets, the forum surrounded by an Ionic colonnade and many

buildings, a two-nave room later turned into a basilica and other public

buildings have been uncovered. The rich architectures and sculptures show a

similarity with those of the ancient towns in Asia Minor. Nicopolis ad Istrum

had issued coins, bearing images of its own public buildings.

In

447 AD

, the town was destroyed by

Attila’s

Huns
.

Perhaps it was already abandoned before the early 400s.

In the 6th century, it was rebuilt as a powerful fortress enclosing little more

than military buildings and churches, following a very common trend for the

cities of that century in the Danube area.The largest area of the extensive ruins (21.55 hectares) of the classical

Nicopolis was not reoccupied since the fort covered only one fourth of it (5.75

hectares), in the southeastern corner.

The town became an episcopal centre during the early Byzantine period. It was

finally destroyed by the Avar invasions at the end of the 6th century. A

Bulgarian medieval settlement arose upon its ruins later (10th-14th century).

Nicopolis ad Istrum can be said to have been the birthplace of

Germanic

literary tradition. In the 4th century, the

Gothic
bishop,

missionary and translator

Ulfilas
(Wulfila)

obtained permission from Emperor

Constantius II

to immigrate with his flock of converts to Moesia and settle

near Nicopolis ad Istrum in 347-8.

There, he invented the

Gothic alphabet

and translated the

Bible
from

Greek

to

Gothic

.

Lucius Septimius Severus (or rarely Severus I) (April 11,

145/146-February 4, 211) was a

Roman

general, and

Roman

Emperor
from April 14, 193 to 211. He was born in what is now the

Berber
part of

Rome’s historic

Africa Province

.

Septimius Severus was born and raised at

Leptis

Magna
(modern Berber

, southeast of

Carthage
,

modern Tunisia
).

Severus came from a wealthy, distinguished family of

equestrian

rank. Severus was of

Italian

Roman ancestry on his mother’s side and of

Punic

or

Libyan

-Punic^[1]

ancestry on his father’s. Little is known of his father,

Publius Septimius Geta

, who held no major political status but had two

cousins who served as consuls under emperor

Antoninus Pius

. His mother, Fulvia Pia’s family moved from

Italy
to

North

Africa
and was of the

Fulvius
gens,

an ancient and politically influential clan, which was originally of

plebeian

status. His siblings were a younger

Publius Septimius Geta

and Septimia Octavilla. Severus’s maternal cousin was

Praetorian Guard

and consul

Gaius Fulvius Plautianus

.^[2]

In 172, Severus was made a

Senator

by the then emperor

Marcus Aurelius

. In 187 he married secondly

Julia

Domna
. In 190 Severus became

consul
, and in

the following year received from the emperor

Commodus

(successor to Marcus Aurelius) the command of the

legions

in Pannonia
.

On the murder of

Pertinax
by

the troops in 193, they proclaimed Severus Emperor at

Carnuntum
,

whereupon he hurried to Italy. The former emperor,

Didius Julianus

, was condemned to death by the Senate and killed, and

Severus took possession of Rome without opposition.

The legions of

Syria

, however, had proclaimed

Pescennius Niger

emperor. At the same time, Severus felt it was reasonable

to offer

Clodius Albinus

, the powerful governor of Britannia who had probably

supported Didius against him, the rank of Caesar, which implied some claim to

succession. With his rearguard safe, he moved to the East and crushed Niger’s

forces at the

Battle of Issus

. The following year was devoted to suppressing Mesopotamia

and other Parthian vassals who had backed Niger. When afterwards Severus

declared openly his son

Caracalla

as successor, Albinus was hailed emperor by his troops and moved to Gallia.

Severus, after a short stay in Rome, moved northwards to meet him. On

February

19
, 197
,

in the

Battle of Lugdunum

, with an army of 100,000 men, mostly composed of

Illyrian
,

Moesian
and

Dacian
legions,

Severus defeated and killed Clodius Albinus, securing his full control over the

Empire.

Emperor

Severus was at heart a

soldier
, and

sought glory through military exploits. In 197 he waged a brief and successful

war against the

Parthian Empire

in retaliation for the support given to Pescennius Niger.

The Parthian capital

Ctesiphon

was sacked by the legions, and the northern half of

Mesopotamia

was restored to Rome.

His relations with the

Roman

Senate
were never good. He was unpopular with them from the outset, having

seized power with the help of the military, and he returned the sentiment.

Severus ordered the execution of dozens of Senators on charges of corruption and

conspiracy

against him, replacing them with his own favorites.

He also disbanded the

Praetorian Guard

and replaced it with one of his own, made up of 50,000

loyal soldiers mainly camped at

Albanum

, near Rome (also probably to grant the emperor a kind of centralized

reserve). During his reign the number of legions was also increased from 25/30

to 33. He also increased the number of auxiliary corps (numerii), many of

these troops coming from the Eastern borders. Additionally the annual wage for a

soldier was raised from 300 to 500

denarii
.

Although his actions turned Rome into a military

dictatorship

, he was popular with the citizens of Rome, having stamped out

the rampant corruption of Commodus’s reign. When he returned from his victory

over the Parthians, he erected the

Arch of Septimius Severus

in Rome.

According to Cassius Dio,^[3]

however, after 197 Severus fell heavily under the influence of his Praetorian

Prefect,

Gaius Fulvius Plautianus

, who came to have almost total control of most

branches of the imperial administration. Plautianus’s daughter,

Fulvia Plautilla

, was married to Severus’s son, Caracalla. Plautianus’s

excessive power came to an end in 205, when he was denounced by the Emperor’s

dying brother and killed.^[4]

The two following praefecti, including the jurist

Aemilius Papinianus

, received however even larger powers.

Campaigns in Caledonia (Scotland)

Starting from 208 Severus undertook a number of military actions in

Roman

Britain
, reconstructing

Hadrian’s Wall

and campaigning in

Scotland
.

He reached the area of the

Moray

Firth
in his last campaign in Caledonia, as was called Scotland by the

Romans.^[5].

In 210 obtained a peace with the

Picts
that lasted

practically until the final withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain

[6]
,

before falling severely ill in

Eboracum
(York).

Death

He is famously said to have given the advice to his sons: “Be harmonious,

enrich the soldiers, and scorn all other men” before he died at Eboracum on

February 4
,

211^[7].

Upon his death in 211, Severus was

deified

by the Senate and succeeded by his sons,

Caracalla

and

Geta

, who were advised by his wife

Julia

Domna
.^[8]

The stability Severus provided the Empire was soon gone under their reign.

Accomplishments and Record

Though his military expenditure was costly to the empire, Severus was the

strong, able ruler that Rome needed at the time. He began a tradition of

effective emperors elevated solely by the military. His policy of an expanded

and better-rewarded army was criticized by his contemporary

Dio Cassius

and

Herodianus

: in particular, they pointed out the increasing burden (in the

form of taxes and services) the civilian population had to bear to maintain the

new army.

Severus was also distinguished for his buildings. Apart from the triumphal

arch in the Roman Forum carrying his full name, he also built the

Septizodium

in Rome and enriched greatly his native city of

Leptis

Magna
(including another triumphal arch on the occasion of his visit of

203).

Severus and Christianity

Christians were

persecuted

during the reign of Septimus Severus. Severus allowed the

enforcement of policies already long-established, which meant that Roman

authorities did not intentionally seek out Christians, but when people were

accused of being Christians they could either curse

Jesus
and make an

offering to

Roman gods

, or be executed. Furthermore, wishing to strengthen the peace by

encouraging religious harmony through

syncretism
,

Severus tried to limit the spread of the two quarrelsome groups who refused to

yield to syncretism by outlawing

conversion

to Christianity or

Judaism
.

Individual officials availed themselves of the laws to proceed with rigor

against the Christians. Naturally the emperor, with his strict conception of

law, did not hinder such partial persecution, which took place in

Egypt
and the

Thebaid
, as

well as in

Africa proconsularis

and the East. Christian

martyrs
were

numerous in Alexandria

(cf.

Clement of Alexandria

, Stromata, ii. 20;

Eusebius

, Church History, V., xxvi., VI., i.). No less severe were

the persecutions in Africa, which seem to have begun in 197 or 198 (cf.

Tertullian’s

Ad martyres), and included the Christians known in the

as the martyrs of

Madaura
.

Probably in 202 or 203

Felicitas

and

Perpetua

suffered for their faith. Persecution again raged for a short time

under the proconsul

Scapula
in

211, especially in

Numidia
and

Mauritania
.

Later accounts of a Gallic

persecution, especially at

Lyon, are

legendary. In general it may thus be said that the position of the Christians

under Septimius Severus was the same as under the

Antonines
;

but the law of this Emperor at least shows clearly that the

rescript
of

Trajan
^[

neededclarification] had failed to execute its purpose..