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IMPORTANT ROMAN MARBLE HEAD OF SEVERUS ALEXANDER, AD 222-235 Or a contemporary. His advisers were men like the famous jurist Ulpian, the historian Cassius Dio and a select board of sixteen senators; a municipal council of fourteen assisted the urban praefect in administering the fourteen districts of Rome. The extravagance of the court was ended; the standard of the coinage was raised; taxes were lightened; literature, art and science were encouraged; the lot of the soldiers was improved; and, for the convenience of the people, loan offices were instituted for lending money at a moderate rate of interest. On the whole, the reign of Alexander was prosperous until the rise, in the east, of the Sassanids. In the war that followed, according to Alexander's own dispatch to the senate, he gained great victories, and returned to Rome with a triumph in 233. Ex collection M. de W., Belgium, acquired in the 1930s. Ca. 230-240 AD H. 13 3/4 in. (35 cm.) Art of the Ancient World, 2009, no. 16 TL0802 P.O.R. Sales |
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