Reminds me of a John Mellencamp song... "A little ditty 'bout Mac & Diad, A Roman family growin' up in the Syrian. Oh yeaaaa, life goes oooon... long after the thrill of being Emperor is gone." A similar matching set of Mac & Diad...
Was out of town yesterday, will share random favorites as catchup & not all like Domna & clan. Plautilla (202-205 A.D.) AR Denarius O: PLAVTILLAE AVGVSTAE, Draped bust right, hair in bun behind. R: HILARITAS, Hilaritas standing, holding palm branch and cornucopia. Laodicea Mint 3.3g 18mm RIC IV 371 (Caracalla) RSC 14 Clodius Albinus (193 - 195 A.D.) AR Denarius O: D CL SEPT ALBIN CAES, bare head right. R: MINER PACIF COS II, Minerva standing front, head left, holding a spear and leaning on a shield. Rome Mint 3.21g 19mm RIC 7, RSC 48, RCV 6144, BMC 98 Elagabalus (218 - 222 A.D.) AR Denarius O.: IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right, from behind. R.: PM T R P IIII COS III P P, Sol radiate, half-draped, with flying cloak, advancing left, raising right hand and holding whip; in field, star. Rome mint, AD 220-221 20mm 3.49g RIC IVb Elagabalus 40 (p. 31) Reverse Die Clash Macrinus, (217 - 218 A.D) AR Tetradrachm Carrhae, Mesopotamia O: AYT K M OΠ CE MAKPINOC CE, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right, from behind. R: ∆MAPX EΞ YΠATOC, eaglestanding front, wings spread, head right, between legs crescent, star in left field, two pellets (second officina?) in ex; REV LEG?. Carrhae mint 217 - 218 A.D 25mm 13.9g Prieur 836
Bronze Grun-something-or-other (Grunsch...)? Kopf n. r. (head facing right) Dreifuss m. Schlange (tripod with snake) Diadumenian Nicopolis. original ticket I use this coin when introducing my younger students to learning "Caesar's English" vocabulary. He was nine years old when he became the Caesar. Some will always ask if he invented the salad. One story says that he was almost spared by the army that had captured him during his escape but they found a letter from him telling his father to not spare any of the rebels in the empire. So they showed him no mercy.
Rarely posted & scarce Maesa Antoninianus Julia Maesa (218 - 225 A.D.) AR Antoninianus O: IVLIA MAESA AVG, Draped bust right, wearing stephane and set on crescent. R: PIETAS AVG, Pietas standing facing, head left, extending hand and holding acerrum; lighted and garlanded altar to lower left. Rome Mint 23mm 4.58g RIC IV(part 2), pg 50, #264 (Elagabalus).
WoWiE! Simply beautiful portrait with a very detailed reverse. Thank you for sharing that beauty! CATCH UP POST! Here is my Elagabalus: Elagabalus AR Denarius AD 218-222. Rome, AD 221/2. IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust of Elagabalus right. Reverse ABVNDAN-TIA AVG, Abundantia standing facing, head left, emptying contents from cornucopiae; in right field, star. RIC 56; BMC 189; RSC 1a. Boldly struck
Elagabalus aka Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus aka Varius Avitus Bassianus O: Laureate bust of Elagabalus, draped, horn. "IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG" R: Elagabalus standing left holding patera over altar. Club in left hand, star in right field."SACRED DEI SOLIS ELAGAB" - RSC 252 This is the rare, initial, SACERD DEI SOLIS ELAGABAL type, with the emperor sacrificing left not right, and with the star erroneously behind him rather than before him. The star apparently stood for his sun god, to whom the emperor was depicted sacrificing, and therefore it should have been placed before him, above his patera and the altar. We know that the star behind the emperor was wrong, because on quite a few dies of all four emperor-sacrificing types the star was eradicated from behind the emperor and re-engraved in front of him. Note that on the obverse Elagabalus is still unbearded, confirming the early date (c. summer 221). The normal type, emperor sacrificing right, star before him, was represented by 181 specimens in the Reka Devnia hoard, compared to 3 specimens for this early variety.
Said before my collection was complete at about 100 coins but this completes a three coin set that comprise from my bit of knowledge anyway the noble high point of the Roman Empire since Augustus and Nerva. The other two are the sestertius I use as a profile pic and a divus Aurelius sestertius. This is not an easy coin to come by I believe. Must give away a couple coins not in my themes to get back to 100. Marcus Aurelius, as Caesar, 139-161. Sestertius (Orichalcum, 31 mm, 27.64 g, 12 h), Rome, 145. [AVRE]LIVS CAESAR AVG [PII F COS II] Bare head of Marcus Aurelius to right. Rev. [VOTA PVBLICA / S C] Faustina and Marcus Aurelius standing vis-à-vis, clasping right hands; behind them stands Concordia placing her hands on their shoulders. BMC 1786. Cohen 1022. RIC 1253a. Minor smoothing and some cleaning marks, otherwise, fine. This type was issued to commemorate the marriage between Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior. They were a devoted couple and MA is known as "The Philosopher".
I have such a hard time posting coins from this monster... RI Elagabalus 218-222 CE AR Antoninianus Radiate Roma seated