Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Contextualising a 'foreign' dynasty; 3. Septimius Severus, Liber Pater and Hercules; 4. Medical tourism and iconographic dialogues in the reign of Caracalla; 5. Elagabalus, Summus Sacerdos Elagabali; 6. Severus Alexander and the re-founding of Rome; Conclusion: divine ideology in the Severan dynasty; Appendix 1. Silver reverse types from Trajan to Severus Alexander; Appendix 2. Reverse silver dies of the 'stone on quadriga' type of Elagabalus; Appendix 3. List of hoards used.

Promotional Information

Exploration of the role played by deities in the negotiation of imperial power under the Severan dynasty (AD 193–235).

About the Author

Clare Rowan completed her doctorate in ancient history at Macquarie University in 2009. She has been a Junior Fellow and Research Officer at the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies and the Macquarie Gale Fellow at the British School at Rome, and is now employed on the project 'Coinage and the Dynamics of Power: the Western Mediterranean 500–100 BC' at the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main.

Reviews

'Under Divine Auspices will prove valuable not only for those interested in Severan propaganda, but for students of Roman history in general.' Julie Langford, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

'One of the strengths of [this] book is the way that coinage is interpreted within the broader cultural and visual context. It is a fluent and convincing book with a plethora of hard facts and statistics, and it is hoped that similar detailed numismatic studies of other reigns will be forthcoming. Rowan's [volume] will be very useful to scholars of the Severan period, those engaging with imperial ideology and numismatics more generally.' Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis, The Journal of Roman Studies