As a tool of dynastic propaganda, this coin was struck by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus to celebrate his wife Julia Domna as a paragon of piety and protectress of Rome, like the goddess Vesta, who is invoked in the inscription. Vesta’s temple, shown on the reverse side of the coin, was one of the most sacred buildings in Rome, and its priestesses tended the sacred fire that was linked to the Empire’s fate. It housed important legal documents as well as cult objects, such as the Palladium, the statue of Athena/Minerva thought to have been brought back from Troy by Aeneas.

Gold.

Theodora Wilbour Fund in memory of Zoë Wilbour.

2022.1295