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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 1896399, member: 57495&quot;]Happy Birthday, <b>Caracalla</b>!!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Lived : </b>4 April 188 - 8 April 217 </p><p><b>Reigned : </b>198 - 8 April 217</p><p><br /></p><p>The genial side of Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus (Caracalla to us) has proven a little hard to uncover.&nbsp; Most historians that speak of him tend to describe him as an uncouth, murderous thug with questionable fashion sense and an unseemly man crush on Alexander the Great.&nbsp; Ancient sources like Herodian and Cassius Dio have him trying to kill his father Septimius Severus on at least one occasion, engineering his father-in-law&#039;s execution, ordering his wife&#039;s exile and subsequent murder, his brother Geta&#039;s assassination in his mother&#039;s arms, the homicidal purging of 20,000 of Geta&#039;s followers, and the massacre of a large part of Alexandria&#039;s population for making jokes about him behind is back.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There are nevertheless Caracalla apologists who will probably brush these aside as minor &#039;personality problems&#039; and point to his energetic efforts on the military front - strengthening the support of the army behind the regime by increasing the rights and salary of soldiers, securing the German frontier against the Alamanni, and preparing for a war of some significance against the Parthians.&nbsp; He was certainly popular with the soldiery, who mourned his death to an assassin&#039;s blade while taking a bio break outside Carrhae in 217.&nbsp; &nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>For me, I just love the loads and loads of wonderful, scowly-faced coins he struck.&nbsp; The one I&#039;m showing today is a recent purchase that has him with a slightly bored who-am-I-going-to-kill-next kind of look that I actually quite enjoy.&nbsp; Pile on your favorite Caracallas!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]323663[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><b>CARACALLA</b></p><p>Denarius</p><p>3.3g, 18mm</p><p>Rome mint, 213 AD.</p><p>RIC 235; C 151.&nbsp; </p><p>O: ANTONINVS PIVS FEL AVG, laureate head right.&nbsp; </p><p>R: MARTI PROPVGNATORI, Mars hurrying left, holding spear and trophy.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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