AN OLD ROMAN COIN IN DAKOTA 



73 



AN OLD ROMAN COIN IX DAKOTA. 



DAVID H. BOOT. 



Iu 1910 the writer was at work in Lincoln county, South Da- 

 kota, and had his attention called one morning to a curious piece 

 of metal that had just been dug up by one of his neighbors. The 

 find was apparently an old coin, but no one in that region 

 could identify it. It was sent to the Smithsonian Institution and 

 there identified as a coin of Septimius Severus, Emperor of 

 Rome, A. D. 193 to 211. Some account of this Roman Em- 

 peror will be of interest in this connection. He was the only 

 negro that ever ruled the world. In 193 he was commander 

 of the Roman army on the Danube, engaged in holding off 

 the armies of the barbarians. He was an Ethiopian who had 

 risen from the ranks by his great energy and force of char- 

 acter. The Emperor Pertinax having been murdered in Rome, 



Fig. 3 — Coin of Septimius Severus found in South Dakota. 



the praetorian guard auctioned off the empire to the highest 

 bidder and it was sold to Didius Julianus for a price equivalent 

 to $12,000,000 of our money. At this time there were I 

 armies in the field protecting the empire, one on the Euphrates, 



