So Emperor Antoninus "Caracalla" (I wonder why are the two "mad" tyrants named after a piece of clothing?) is mostly known for beeing a mad brute that slaughtered his way through his life starting with his brother Geta. What is not as much common knowledge is that Caracalla increased the empires budget like noone else before with two ingenius tricks: Making every subject a taxpayer by giving them the prestigiuos roman citizenship and by creating a new coin that was meant to help the empire pay the army and will dominate the roman coinage system for nearly 100 years: The Antoninianus Anyways the main reason why I wrote all this is that I won and received my first Antoninianus minted under the reign of its creator. So its not the most impressive example and the reverse is pretty much destroyed but I'am still happy about it. At least the portrait is in nice condition and to be honest that part is the highlight on every Caracalla coin. Also I want to add a little cry for help here because I struggle a bit to indentify the reverse. I can read the legend: (PM) TRP XVIII COS IIII PP. Sadly this is the most generic legend from this type so it doesnt help me to much in identifying the most likely right looking figure on the reverse. So comparing the coin to known examples this one seems to be the most likely candidate and maybe you guys can confirm it: http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/caracalla/RIC_0258a.2.jpg And as always feel free to post some of your Antoniniani from the reign of Caracalla or your favorite Caracalla portraits!
In the Roman army soldiers and commanders had satirical nicknames, and emperors accepted this in order to be seen as good comrades. We can read in Herodian that Caracalla sometimes walked on the roads together with the troops and had the same food as the simple soldiers. Caracalla means "little caraca", a coat of Celtic origin, a word that became the English cloak. Caracalla : "small sized cloak". This caraca was part of the Roman legionary clothing at the time. But the emperor was short... Napoleon was short too, and was called by his men "petit caporal" or "petit tondu" (he had changed his hairstyle).
Sadly the soldiers nicknames for most other emperors have been lost to time I guess. My theory about this is that the history writing senators who where hostile to both of these emperors tried to redicule Caligula and Caracalla by using these nicknames.
Fun one, @wittwolf!! You show one of the first Antoniniani issued; I shall show the last for nearly a generation. This was issued in AD 219 by Elagabalus, Caracalla's first-cousin-once-removed. After Elagabalus, the denomination was no longer minted until the "year of the six emperors," AD 238, when it was reintroduced by Balbinus. Elagabalus, AD 218-222. Roman AR Antoninianus, 5.17 g, 21.3 mm. Rome, AD 219. Obv: IMP ANTONINVS AVG, radiate and draped bust, right. Rev: P M TR PII COSII P P, Fortuna enthroned left, holding rudder on globe and cornucopiae; wheel below seat. Refs: RIC 18; BMCRE 94; Cohen 148; RCV 7495.
He had an excuse for being short. He was introduced to the soldiers as a child travelling with his father. I regret we don't have coins of the young boy dressed as a soldier as we later did with Licinius II. Your coin shows Jupiter holding a thunderbolt. I do not have that one. Caracalla when young: Antoninianus with Diana as Luna in biga of oxen Pluto with Cerberus I believe people today make less use of nicknames as their grandfathers did. In the 30's to 50's, my father 'Smitty' ran with his friend group including an electrician named 'Sparky' and a slender fellow called 'Slim'. 'Tiny' was OK for a name for a large man. Nicknames were often related to the name (Trixie or Babette). In the midwest where I was born, a boy would be named William and called Bill but in the American South birth certificates were as likely to read Billy or Billie. I don't see as much of that today in public. I believe it is more reserved today for very close friends and family. I have noted more than one family that refuses even to use Nick for Nicholas or Barb for Barbara. Fashions change.
With Caligula's nickname being ... Caligula, meaning "Little Boots". That one really stuck! The name comes from what appear to us as sandals, Caligae, but were in fact hob-nailed army boots, very practical for marching. His father would bring him as a child on campaign dressed up as a little soldier, boots and all, and that's how he got the (nick)name "Little Boots" (Caligula).
For Aurelian we have Historia Augusta, Divus Aurelianus chapter 6: it says that Aurelian, when a simple tribune, was nicknamed "manu ad ferrum". Which can be understood "always ready to fight" of course but also, in a more metaphorical way, er... "wanker".
Here is another antoninianus of Caracalla. This one of 215 AD I think, when the imperial couple (the emperor and his mother) were in Orient, symbolized on this coin by the Sun holding globe.
I think part of it as well is the tendency for confusion. Caracalla and Elagabalus proper names are "Antoninus" and they are called such in Cassius Dio and on coins which isn't very helpful when engaging in general discussion, therefore a unique name for them helps avoiding confusion. Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus is the same, all of those names could cause confusion so the nickname is used despite Suetonius etc. calling him Gaius. We know that Hadrian was known as the "Greekling" due to his philhellenism, but Hadrian was an appropriate enough unique identifier. Antoninus is also often referred to by his title of "Pius". Even on Decius commemorative coinage. Constantius "Chlorus" is another. Maximinus "Thrax" is another one, although this could be legitimate or may be to emphasise his "barbarian" origin by the senatorial class.
Nice coin everybody! @GinoLR I dont think the historia augusta includes many true facts when it comes to such details but the author definetly seems to have a lot of humor. @corvusconstantius Ah yes I totally forgot those nicknames. Pius was more of a title than a nickname I would say. But the origin nickname was also used on Philip I. "the arab".
Kind of makes you wonder if Little Cloak (Caracalla) and Little Boots (Caligula), who both turned out to be psychos, may have been affected by an early exposure to roman warfare ? Even if not seeing the carnage of a battlefield, seeing soldiers returning to camp splattered in blood and talking about it would have had an impact. Maybe dad took them to see the fun at the colosseum too. Another nickname was Constantius "Chlorus" meaning pale-faced (Edit: I see @corvusconstantius just beat me to it), and Consantine I was apparently known as "Trachala" meaning "thick neck". Maybe John Cena could play him if there's ever a movie (kind of facial resemblence too).
I sometimes wonder how rome could have more effectively handled the third century crisis from a financial standpoint. I mean you have all these wars going on and the imperial goverment has increased expenses and therefore is running a defecit... the normal reaction seems to be debase the currency. Modern economies tell us small amounts of inflation are actually good. I think the idea for the antoninianus was really smart and I wonder if it would have worked out better for rome if they kept making higher denomination coins rather than decreasing the silver in existing coins. I'm sure getting an antoninianus in the late third century that was clearly mostly bronze decreased trust A LOT. I wonder if a 10g high purity silver coin that was say worth 10/20 denarius would have been a better choice. At least then as a citizen you could still feel like your money had instrinsic value. Also nothing says ' this currency is worthless' like the state no longer accepting tax payments in that currency. I wonder if it would have been better for constantine to only accept the denarii/ant as taxes to convince people those currencies had value. Or maybe those more modern fiscall ideals had to evolve organically. Interesting to think about anyway.
