This rare Roman gold aureus (five known examples), minted between 201 and 210 AD and held at the British Museum in London since 1844, depicts the Stadium of Domitian in Rome. The three main buildings where athletic events and public games were held in Imperial Rome were: the Circus Maximus with chariot races; the Flavian Amphitheatre, known as the Colosseum, where gladiatorial combat took place; and the Stadium of Domitian, beneath today's Piazza Navona, where the agones, athletic events, were held: running, boxing, wrestling, pankration, and pentathlon.
On one side of the coin, you can see the bearded, laureate head of Septimius Severus; on the other, the Stadium in the shape of a long handle, open on the left, and the façade with its arches, adorned at the top with marble busts, probably of champions and deities associated with athletics.
It is known that in the immediate vicinity of the Stadium, marble groups and single statues have been found, works by famous artists, which were probably located in the upper arches or placed in the niches of the rooms on the ground floor: such as the famous statue of "Pasquino", found in 1501, belonging to a group depicting the dying Patroclus supported by Menelaus, a Pentelic marble torso attributable to Praxiteles and depicting the Lycean Apollo, a torso of Hermes attributed to Lysippos, the group of Theseus fighting the Minotaur, a torso of an athlete anointing himself in Pentelic marble and fragments attributable to five other statues including a discreet replica of the Pothos of Scopas. Inside the stadium, on the coin, you can see the athletes of the various competitive disciplines, starting from the left: a runner, two pancras athletes, a long jumper, two boxer,s including one winner, two wrestlers, and the Emperor seated under a baldachin. At the top is the inscription P P, and at the bottom COS III, the Latin abbreviation for Consul Tertium. On the other side is SEVERVS PIVS AVG. The Roman aureus, weighing 7 gram,s corresponded to 25 denarii or 100 sesterces, or 400 asses. The production of gold coins was sporadic until Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul; the large quantity of precious metal allowed for the first particularly large issues of Roman gold coins.