Etenna (AD 193-211) AE 32 - Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD. AE32 (19.74g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Cult monument decorated with five facing busts, flanked by a statue of Hercules, holding patera, lion skin, and club to the left and a statue of a bearded male figure, holding patera and uncertain object to the right, each set on base. VF, brown patina, minor roughness. Very rare, only two known to von Aulock.

The exact nature of the unusual monument on the reverse, which serves as a recurring type on the coinage of Etenna, is uncertain. While some coins show an abstract design on the face of the monument (see, for example, von Aulock 588) others clearly show a series of facing busts (as on the current coin). We might suppose that this was a pantheistic monument honoring the principal deities of Etenna.