Rare AE27 of Otacilia Severa, 244-249 CE, Magnesia ad Sipylum, Lydia, Roman Empire

M ΩTA CEBHΡA C, draped bust right, wearing stephane / EΠ AINIOY MAΓNHT CIΠYΛ, tetrastyle temple with Tyche standing left within, holding rudder and cornucopiae. 27mm, 6.21 grams. Winterthur 3800; Dusseldorf 7125; SNG Lewis 1432-1433; SNG Righetti 1044; Aeruginis a0020; GRPC Lydia 216.

Naming the Magistrate Aenius Ippikus on the reverse. Very rare.

Otacilia Severa was the wife of Emperor Philip the Arab and served as Roman empress from 244 to 249 CE. Little is known of her early life, but she was likely from a well-connected senatorial family. As empress she appears to have played a stabilizing, respected role at court and is notably associated with religious tolerance - later Christian writers even credit her, perhaps apocryphally, with protecting Christian communities during her husband’s reign. Her image appears frequently on coinage, reflecting her prominence. After Philip’s defeat and death at the hands of Decius in 249, Otacilia Severa disappears from the historical record, presumably living out her remaining years in obscurity.