Aureus of Septimius Severus in the name of Julia Domna

This coin was struck by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus to celebrate his wife, the empress Julia Domna, and extol her maternal qualities and thus legitimate their dynasty. The obverse portrait reflects an earlier portrait type of the empress with her signature hairstyle. After the temple of Vesta burned down in 191 BC, it was soon rebuilt in the reign of Septimius Severus with the possible involvement of Julia Domna as Roman empresses were often associated with the foundational cult of Vesta, the goddess of hearth and home. The temple, shown on the reverse, was one of the most sacred buildings in Rome and its priestesses, the six Vestal Virgins who are here depicted sacrificing, tended the Sacred Fire that burned continuously within the temple and was linked to the fate of Rome. The temple was believed to have been built in the 7^th century BCE by the legendary second king of Rome Numa and featured an unusual circular plan. It housed many 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. The engraving of the reverse is so detailed that the statue showing the goddess ready for battle can be seen between the central columns. On this coin, Julia Domna is presented as a paragon of piety and as a protector of Rome, like Vesta who is invoked on the reverse in the legend “Mother Vesta.”