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Severus Alexander bears the following titles on the obverse: imperator (originally 'commander-in-chief', an imperial title of honor) and August (literally 'exalted', imperial title of honor). The downside is an example of imperial propaganda. The message is that the emperor provides grain (Annona is the peronification of the grain harvest) from Egypt. Rome was a city of about a million inhabitants. It goes without saying that agriculture in the immediate vicinity could not feed all those people. At the time the coin was minted, the grain to feed the people of Rome was mainly imported from Egypt by ship. With this coin, the emperor wants to say that he once again helped the people of Rome with food ('annona augusti' means 'the emperor's grain harvest'). Annona is always depicted with spikes and often also with a modius. Severus Alexander held the office of Caesar under the tyrannical rule of his cousin Elagabalus. After his murder, he was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard, which was confirmed by the Senate. He has gone down in history as one of the best emperors in the Roman Empire. The empire prospered and there were no wars during the first nine years of his reign. After a conflict with the Parthians, he was murdered during a war on the border of Germania, along with his mother Julia Mamaea, while the soldiers proclaimed one of their leaders, Maximinus Thrax, emperor.
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