Syrtica, Leptis Magna
Augustus. 27 BCE – 14 CE
Æ Dupondius 33mm, 19.45g, 8h
Bare head of Augustus left within laurel wreath /
LPQY in neo-Punic across field, busts of Dionysus-Shadrapha wearing taenia and ivy-wreath vis-à-vis bust of Herakles-Milk-Ashtart wearing taenia and lion’s skin tied around his neck.
RPC I 842; MAA 11; Müller 14
Leptis Magna was the third most important city in modern-day Africa during Roman times, after only Alexandria and Carthage. Today, it is a major tourist attraction in Libya.
The Roman emperor Septimius Severus was born here and until the time of Gordian III, it was the home of the 3rd Augustan legion. In the 3rd century CE, it had an estimated 100,000 inhabitants.
Founded as a punic settlement in roughly the 7th century BCE, it was never conquered by Rome, but instead joined in an act of friendship, and gradually became more and more Roman. It therefore retained a great deal of independence.
Leptis Magna repels an attempt to create a Greek colony nearby
Leptis Magna sends envoys to Rome to see friendship
Four cohorts and colonists from Rome arrive at Leptis Magna
April 11
Septimius Severus is born at Leptis Magna.
Septimius Severus visits Leptis Magna as emperor
Gordian III dissolves the 3rd Augustan legion, based in Leptis Magna
A tsunami destroys large parts of Leptis Magna
Leptis Magna falls to the Vandals
Leptis Magna reorganized into the Eastern Roman Empire