HIPPOPOTAMUS. 
101 
lay hold of it; but though there were several of 
them, the new-born calf escaped, and made the 
best of its way to the river. 
This Homan coin, on one side of which appears the 
portrait of Marcia Otacilia Severa, the wife of the emperor 
Philip, and on the reverse the figure of the hippopota- 
mus, was struck on the occasion of Philip’s celebration 
of the Secular Games, when Rome was supposed to have 
attained the period of a thousand years from her founda- 
tion. The coin itself is of brass, exactly the size of the 
figure, and on the reverse are the letters usual on Roman 
brass and copper coins. S. C. Senatus Consulto, and the 
legend saecvlares avgg. by which are to be under- 
stood the words Ludi Saeculares Augustorum, or the Se- 
cular Games of the Augusti, celebrated by Philip and by 
his son, whom he had appointed his associate in the em- 
pire. 
On the side of the coin which shows the portrait of the 
empress is the following legend : marcia otacil severa 
AVG. 
The legend on the reverse of the coin shows beyond 
