Bronze Coin – Sestertius - Ancient Rome, c. 222-235 AD.
Ruler: Severus Alexander.
Obv: Bust of Severus Alexander, right.
Rev: ''MARS ULTOR'', Mars standing right, helmeted and with spear and shield .
Well struck, nice portrait and patina.
(Sear 2149). 30mm, 20.32gm.
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty years of civil wars, foreign invasion, and collapse of the monetary economy.
Alexander was the heir apparent to his cousin, the eighteen-year-old Emperor who had been murdered along with his mother by his own guards, who, as a mark of contempt, had their remains cast into the Tiber river. He and his cousin were both grandsons of the influential and powerful Julia Maesa, who had arranged for Elagabalus' acclamation as emperor by the famed Third Gallic Legion. It was the rumor of Alexander's death that triggered the assassination of Elagabalus and his mother.
