THRACE, Pautalia. Septimius Severus, AD 193-211

THRACE, Pautalia. Septimius Severus, AD 193-211

• AE Pentassarion, struck circa AD 196-198 under the Thracian governor T. Statilius Barbarus

• Obverse: ΑΥ Κ Λ CЄΠΤΙ [СЕΥΗΡΟС], laureate and cuirassed bust right.

• Reverse: ΗΓЄ CΤΑ ΒΑΡΒΑΡΟΥ / ΠΑΥΤΑΛΙΑC, Severus on horseback right, about to hurl his spear at a wild boar running right below.

• Catalog notes: 34mm, 17.35 g, 12h, VF, green-brown patina, "apparently unpublished" in Ruzicka, Varbanov, SNG Copenhagen, BMC

From the estate of Thomas Bentley Cederlind. 

Pautalia under Barbarus is famous for big, mythological bronzes – most show the emperor hunting a lion, or a lion attacking a horse. The boar version is the outlier. CNG called it "extremely rare" and couldn't find it in the standard references, which is why it was singled out in 2016. 

Historically, these were struck in what is now Kyustendil, Bulgaria, when Severus was securing the Danube frontier after his civil war victory. The governor put the emperor himself in the hunting scene – a direct piece of imperial propaganda about virtus, not just a generic hero.