Coins of the ‘Syrian Empresses’ with the legend VENVS VICTRIX from lost hoard of Roman coins from Bulgaria

Abstract

Among the, now lost, hoard of Roman coins presented by Filipova, three were the coins of the female dynasts of the Severan dynasty with the VENVS VICTRIX legend on the reverse. The article examines the iconography of the coins in the light of the previous examples of the issues with the same legend. The conclusion is made that the reference to the goddess ideologically linked the dynasty with the predecessors however special reverence might also suggest an exceptional religious connection of the empresses with Venus, the deity which guaranteed in all her incarnations and aspects the permanence of the domus divina.