To The Divine Septimius Severus The Pious

In AD 208 Severus travelled to Britannia at the head of an army numbering over 40,000 with the intent of subjugating Caledonia. Despite allegedly high Roman casualties on account of the Caledonians' guerrilla tactics, by 210 Severus had made significant gains. The Caledonians sued for peace, which was granted in return for their forfeit of the Central Lowlands. Renewed conflict ensued almost immediately with a Caledonian revolt supported by the Maeatae, and Severus set himself to the task of exterminating the Caledonians, though illness forced him to withdraw back to Eboracum, where he died on February 4th AD 211. Severus was returned to Rome and laid in the tomb of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, whom of all the emperors he revered so greatly that he even deified his son Commodus, and held that all emperors should thenceforth assume the name Antoninus as they did that of Augustus. At the demand of his sons, who gave him a most splendid funeral and who caused to be struck this commemorative aureus, he was added by the Senate to the ranks of the deified.

The prominence of the eagle on such issues stems from the consecration ceremony itself; a funeral pyre was lit and an eagle was set loose from its summit, symbolising the elevation of the soul from the earth to the ranks of the gods.

DIVO SEPTIMIO SEVERO PIO - Divo Septimo Severo Pio: To the divine Septimius Severus the pious.
CONSECRATIO - Consecratio : Consecration