Septimius Severus Silver Denarius 198AD Laodicea ad Mare Mint

Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193-211 A.D.) Silver AR Denarius

Obverse: L SEPT SEV AVG IMP XI PART MAX, Head of Septimius Severus, laureate, right

Reverse: CONCORDIAE MILITVM, Concordia, draped, standing left, holding a standard in each hand

Date: c. 198-202 A.D., RIC 502B

Size: 19mm diameter, 3.20g weight

Composition: Silver

This coin was produced not at the main imperial mint in Rome but at the eastern branch mint of Laodicea ad Mare, in the Roman province of Syria. Laodicea ad Mare ("Laodicea by the sea") was a port city originally founded by in the 4th century B.C. by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals and founder of the Seleucid Empire. He named the city in honor of his mother, Laodice. Pompey conquered the city for the Roman Republic in 64 B.C., along with the rest of Syria. By the time of Septimius Severus, the city had become a prosperous metropolis of 40,000 inhabitants.

Septimius established a branch mint in Laodicea to supplement the silver coinage produced at Rome, making it easier to pay his legions stationed in the area during and following the Roman civil war of 193-197 A.D. Denarii produced at that mint have a distinctive "eastern" appearance, in both the inscriptions and portraiture. They are arguably superior in fine detail and general artistic merit to the relatively crude coins produced at the other Syrian branch mint of Emesa. Collectors of Laodicea ad Mare denarii are also generally considered to be more cultured and sophisticated, with a better innate sense of aesthetics, compared to the vulgar and untrustworthy Emesian collectors.