Dea Caelestis - An Indulgence Of Septimus Severus

Visited the dealer in town that stocks the widest range of ancients of any of the local dealers earlier this week. I wasn't going to buy too much and certainly wasn't planning on buying anything pricey, but this coin leaped out at me. It's one of the nicest Septimus Severus denarii I've seen in person, and the type was far too unusual to pass by. It's in even nicer condition than the example used to illustrate the type in Sear (No. 6285).



Septimus Severus, denarius, circa AD 204. Obverse: Septimus Severus, SEVERVS PIVS AVG. Reverse: INDVLGENTIA AVGG IN CARTH, Dea Caelestis seated on lion, leaping over spring.

Dea Caelestis, although not named on the coin itself, was one of the chief deities of Roman Carthage. Apparently she was the re-envisioning of the old goddess Tanit (minus the whole child-sacrifice thing) and was locally considered an analogue of the goddess Juno. Severus seems to have considered himself a "Carthaginian" (even though his hometown was actually Leptis Magna in Libya) and used this coin to proclaim some special favour granted to the capital city of his home province. Sear reports that it is uncertain exactly what kind of "indulgence" is being commemorated by this coin or what exactly the "spring" is supposed to represent, although it was apparently important enough for Severus to have issued an entire commemorative series featuring this design (gold aureus, silver denarius and copper as) in both his own name and that of his son and co-emperor Caracalla.