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Roman Empire Coin of Empress Otacilia Severa (244-249 AD)
Wife of Emperor Philip I - Philip The Arab

Struck 244-249 AD at mint of Rome
Silver AR Antoninianus - Double Denarius - 22.5 mm, ~ 4.4 grams
Reference: RIC 119b. RSC 9. Sear 9148
Certified: NGC Choice VF 8211575-008

Obverse: M OTACIL SEVERA AVG, Bust of Otacilia Severa facing right, diademed, draped, on crescent

Reverse: CONCORDIA AVGG, Concordia seated left with patera and double cornucopiae

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Marcia Otacilia Severa was the Roman empress and wife of Emperor Philip the Arab, who reigned over the Roman Empire from 244 to 249. She was the mother of Emperor Philip II.

She was a member of the ancient gens Otacilia, of consular and senatorial rank. Her father was Otacilius Severus or Severianus, who served as Roman Governor of Macedonia and Moesia, while her mother was either a member of or related to the gens Marcia. According to sources she had a brother called Severianus, who served as Roman Governor of Moesia Inferior in 246–247.

In 234 Severa married Philip, who was probably serving at the time in the Praetorian Guard under Emperor Alexander Severus. They had at least one child, Marcus Iulius Philippus Severus or Philippus II, who later became co-emperor with his father.

In February 244, the emperor Gordianus died in Mesopotamia; it is suspected in the sources that he was murdered, and there is a possibility that Severa was involved in the conspiracy. Her husband Philip became the new emperor, giving Gordian a proper funeral and returning his ashes to Rome for burial. Philip gave Severa the honorific title of Augusta and had their son made heir of the purple.

Severa and Philip are sometimes considered as the first Christian imperial couple, because during their reign persecutions of Christians were replaced by a policy of tolerance, but this belief has not been proven. It was through her intervention, for instance, that Bishop and Saint Babylas of Antioch was saved from persecution.

In August 249, Philip was killed near Verona in battle against Decius, who had been proclaimed Augustus by the Danubian armies. Severa was in Rome; when the news of her husband's death arrived, their son was murdered by the Praetorian Guard still in her arms. Severa survived her husband and son and lived later in obscurity.

Possibly a bust of Otacilia Severa, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Philip I (Latin: Marcus Julius Philippus; c. 204 – September 249), commonly known as Philip the Arab, was Roman emperor from 244 to 249. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip, who had been Praetorian prefect, rose to power. He quickly negotiated peace with the Sasanian Empire and returned to Rome to be confirmed by the Senate. According to many historians, he was possibly the first Christian Roman Emperor.

Although his reign lasted only five years, it marked an unusually stable period in a century that is otherwise known for having been turbulent. Near the end of his rule, Philip commemorated Rome's first millennium. In September 249 he was killed during or shortly after the Battle of Verona against the usurper Trajan Decius, who was subsequently recognized by the Senate as his successor.

Born in modern-day Shahba, Syria, in what was then Arabia Petraea, Philip's ethnicity was most likely Arab. While he publicly adhered to the Roman religion, he was later asserted to have been a Christian, and in the later half of the 3rd century and into the beginning of the 4th century, some Christian clergymen held that Philip had been the first Christian ruler of Rome. He was described as such in many published works that became widely known during the Middle Ages, including *Chronicon* (‘Chronicle’); *Historiae Adversus Paganos* (‘History Against the Pagans’); and *Historia Ecclesiastica* (‘Ecclesiastical History’). Consequently, Philip's religious affiliation remains a divisive topic in modern scholarly debate about his life.

Bust of Philip I at The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, 2010