A MARBLE head of the first African Roman Emperor, who died in York, is to go under the hammer next month.

The portrait of Emperor Septimius Severus will be sold at Bonhams Antiquities auction in London on April 3, with an estimated value of between £120,000 and £150,000.

The work is dated to approximately 194 AD.

A Bonhams spokesman said Septimius was born in Leptis Magna – nowadays Libya – in 145 AD.

He reigned from 193 AD until his death in York in February 211 AD.

By that time he had travelled virtually the entire length of the Roman world.

“Having gained power under the Emperor Commodus as commander of the Pannonian legions, he was one of the five claimants for the Imperial throne after the assassination of Commodus in 192 AD,” he said.

“He was proclaimed emperor by his legions, at which point he travelled immediately to Rome and defeated his rivals.”

Madeleine Perridge, head of antiquities at Bonhams said: “This is an important and striking portrait of a man who was born in relative obscurity in the Roman province of North Africa, but who rose to become Emperor of Rome.”