Aureus (Coin) Portraying Empress Julia Domna

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

196-211, issued by Septimius Severus

Roman, minted in Rome

The front (obverse) of this coin portrays a bust of Empress Julia Domna facing right and draped. The back (reverse) depicts the deity Pietas standing left, with her right hand over a lit and garlanded altar, cradling an incense box in her left arm.

Julia Domna was the wife of the Emperor Septimius Severus and the mother of Caracalla and Geta. This coin was issued during the joint reign of Severus and his elder son. As the self-assured portrait on this coin suggests, Julia’s influence was openly recognized by contemporaries. Intellectual, ambitious, and steel-willed, the Syrian-born Julia was called “the philosopher”. The figure of Piety on the reverse is a standard type, invoking the traditional Roman attitude of respect and duty toward one’s family, country, and gods.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Roman
Title: Aureus (Coin) Portraying Empress Julia Domna
Place: Rome (Minted in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 196 CE–211 CE
Medium: Gold
Inscriptions: Obverse: IVLIA AVGVSTA Reverse: PIETAS AVGG
Dimensions: Diam.: 2 cm (13/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Martin A. Ryerson
Reference Number: 1922.4883
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/5664/manifest.json

Karen B. Alexander and Mary Greuel. Private Taste in Ancient Rome: Selections from Chicago Collections. Exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1990), cat. 56.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 29.
Theresa Gross-Diaz, “Cat. 59 Aureus Portraying Julia Domna: Curatorial Entry,” in Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016).
https://publications.artic.edu/roman/reader/romanart/section/546

Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, July 3, 2013 - Sept. 19, 2016.

Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.