Here's the second little write-up of today and that's long overdue, about a really interesting sestertius of Caracalla I won at a Roma auction in October. When drooling over the coins offered at the Roma XX auction 29/30 October, I was particularly interested in lots 642 and 643: sestertii struck by Caracalla that refer to his visit to Alexandria, in 215 AD (Did a member of this forum perhaps grab one of the two sestertii in Roma Auction XX?) Somehow, I had never seen this coin in auction before (even though it’s not extremely rare...!) and was taken by the historical event the reverse of this coin refers to. Since those two lots at the Roma auction were way out of my reach, I felt very fortunate that another type appeared in the Roma E-Sale following auction XX and I was able to grab it. Yes, obviously it's not as good looking as the other two, but I am more then happy with it! The reverse is brutal, as it refers to the massacre of the troops of Caracalla in Alexandria during a visit of the wretched emperor to the tomb of Alexander the Great. The story goes that the emperor heard that the populace of Alexandria spoke ill of him. He then marched his whole arme into the city, after notifying the citizens first to stay at home. According to the historian Cassius Dio: "And, to pass over the details of the calamities that then befell the wretched city, he slaughtered so many persons that he did not even venture to say anything about their number, but wrote to the senate that it was of no interest how many of them or who had died, since all had deserved to suffer this fate.” The reverse is quite clear, leaving little to the imagination: Caracalla is dominating the crocodile whilst Isis is presenting grain ears to the emperor. How humiliating...! Share your brutal, or humiliating coins!
Nice find and interesting reverse type. Sestertii of Caracalla are not that common, so be glad that you found it. Can't say I approve of almost anything Caracalla did during his reign, from confiscating the estates and properties of senators, relying on a caste of informers and spies, to slaughtering the inhabitants of Alexandria.
Caracalla even looked brutal. He was the most evil Roman Emperor/ even though Hollywood would have you think it was Nero "Quo Vadis"
Historical coin, @Limes! Man, that IS brutal! Here's Sol Invictus brutalizing a POW: Aurelian AD 270-275. Roman silvered billon Antoninianus, 3.60 gm; 21.7 mm, 6 h. Rome mint, officina 9, issue 11, early – September AD 275. Obv: IMP AVRELIANVS AVG, radiate, cuirassed bust, right. Rev: ORIE-N-S AVG, Sol walking r., holding olive branch in r. hand and bow in l. hand, l. foot resting on a captive in oriental dress kneeling on the ground to r., head turned l., r. hand raised; * in left field, XXIR in exergue. Refs: RIC 64; MER/RIC temp 1834; RCV 11569; Hunter 23; Cohen 159; La Venera 1321-32.
