This lovely guy just arrived in the mail recently: Imperial Rome Caracalla, r. 198-217 A.D. (203 A.D.) Rome Mint, AR Denarius, 20.4mm x 3.21 grams Obv.: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right Rev.: INDVLGENTIA AVGG, IN CARTH in ex, Dea Caelestis seated facing on lion galloing right over rushing waters, holding thunderbolt and scepter The photo makes the coin look a little more yellow than it is - I'll need to touch it up or retake it. I was pleased with this coin because of the nice portrait, but also because of the interesting reverse. Just a quick search on the web shows Dea Caelestis was the Romanized version of the Punic God Tanit, and the other symbols of the goddess are on the reverse (water and the lion). The reverse was meant to reference a favor grated to Carthage (I saw on Vcoins someone suggesting it was an Aqueduct... And I just noticed that this is the same coin in the vcoin listing... I got a deal!). Anyway, regardless of the history, I love the idea of a Goddess riding a lion! Plus, I'm slowly growing a Caracalla portrait series. Here they are so far: 203 A.D. 205 A.D. 211 A.D.
Interesting how Rome incorporated Tanit into Dea Caelestis. During the Punic Wars, the Romans appeared to abhor her worship, as they felt that Tanit with Ba'al required human sacrifices...
This is the less common version with the rider facing forward rather than right and carrying a drum rather than a thunderbolt.
LOVE the posts everyone!!! I've been trying to get that reverse at my 'price' for a while now....but my remaining budget and the coins availability never seem to quite match up.
Very nice OP coin Years ago, I've had one denarius of Geta with this reverse, witch turned out to be fake, unfortunately Q
