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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 2930201, member: 57495&quot;]Unlike most of the coins I buy, this first one wasn&#039;t actually on my want list.&nbsp; I was aware that it was a desirable type, and that this was a respectable example, particularly the reverse, but I knew I wouldn&#039;t seriously gun for it.&nbsp; I did some quick research on pricing when saw it in an auction catalog, put in a bid at its opening price, and was pleasantly surprised when I won without any competition.&nbsp; It was only four weeks later when I opened the package it arrived in and I held it in my hand that its sheer historical coolness really struck home.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The story the coin tells is one that just about anyone who collects ancients will know.&nbsp; Pictured on the reverse are the two brothers, 13-year old Caracalla and 12-year old Geta, sons of the emperor, Septimius Severus.&nbsp; The confronted busts and the legend AETERNIT IMPERI speaks to Septimius&#039;s hope for the reign of his sons over an eternal empire, one he had fought a bloody civil war some years earlier against three other claimants to win.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>At the time this coin was struck, young Caracalla was already co-emperor, but Septimius would later also raise Geta to the same status, the idea being that his sons would rule jointly after his death.&nbsp; The boys, however, despised each other with a passion, and if one needs to know how sibling rivalry gets settled in ancient Rome, one needs to look no further than Romulus and Remus, the original Roman brothers.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>While this type also comes with Severus on the obverse, I&#039;ve always felt the variety with Julia Domna was more poignant.&nbsp; She was born to an aristocratic family and was well-known for her intelligence and scholarship.&nbsp; She was no doubt a strong woman who wielded great power and influence as empress, but she was also a mother.&nbsp; On my coin, she seems to wear a serene smile, unaware that in a mere 10 years&#039; time, one of her sons would be dying in her arms, murdered on the orders of the other.&nbsp; She would not even be allowed to grieve for him.&nbsp; As the senator and historian Cassius Dio relates it:</p><p><br /></p><p><i>&quot;She was not permitted to mourn or weep for her son, though he had met so miserable an end before his time, but, on the contrary, she was compelled to rejoice and laugh as though at some great good fortune; so closely were all her words, gestures, and changes of colour observed. Thus she alone, the Augusta, wife of the emperor and mother of the emperors, was not permitted to shed tears even in private over so great a sorrow.&quot;</i></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]711327[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>JULIA DOMNA</b></p><p>AR Denarius. 3.0g, 19.5mm. Rome mint, AD 201. RIC 540; Vagi 1723; BMC 4. O: IVLIA AVGVSTA, draped bust right; hair elaborately waved. R: AETERNIT IMPERI, laureate and draped bust of Caracalla right, vis-à-vis bareheaded and draped bust of Geta left.</p><p><i>Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection</i></p><p><br /></p><p>This isn&#039;t where the story ends, however.&nbsp; Caracalla wasn&#039;t satisified with the mere death of his brother, or even the deaths of Geta&#039;s 20,000 partisans whom he had slaughtered.&nbsp; He also issued a <i>damnatio memoriae</i> against Geta, an official condemnation of his memory which traditionally was seen as a fate even worse than death.&nbsp; Geta&#039;s statues would have been torn down, inscriptions of his name erased, and his portraits defaced.&nbsp; Again in the words of Cassius Dio, <i>&quot;Indeed, if anyone so much as wrote the name Geta or even uttered it, he was immediately put to death.&quot;</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Dio also tells us that Caracalla had Geta&#039;s coins melted down, but clearly any efforts against his imperial coinage must have been symbolic at best, as they exist in abundance.&nbsp; We do, however, have clear numismatic evidence of the <i>damnatio</i> enforced at a number of provincial mints, where coins showing Geta were recalled and had his portrait and name erased.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>My <i>damnatio </i>of Geta coin wasn&#039;t as easy a win as the one above was.&nbsp; I was overseas at the time, logged on using my phone, gritting my teeth over the sputteringly slow internet connection, and trying to get a grumpy 5-year old ready for his evening bath as the lot came up in the live auction.&nbsp; Perhaps the added pressure helped to put me in the right mood for the challenge one rival bidder had in store for me, but after a volley of back-and-forth bids that seemed to go on forever, the lot was mine.&nbsp; It&#039;s not a pretty coin (and was a pain to photograph), but for me, it is the very definition of &quot;keeper&quot;!&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]711328[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>CARACALLA &amp; GETA</b></p><p>AE36. 17.85g, 36.2mm. CARIA, Stratonicaea, circa AD 209-211. Jason, son of Cleobulus, <i>gramatteus</i>. SNG von Aulock 2686; SNG Cop 512. O: Confronted busts of Caracalla right and [Geta] left, both laureate, draped, and cuirassed; c/m: ΘЄOY within rectangular incuse, head of Minerva right within circular incuse. R: Hekate standing left holding patera and torch; to left, hound standing left, head right.</p><p><i>Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection</i></p><p>Notes: <i>On most of these defaced issues of Stratonicaea, Geta&#039;s entire bust is chiselled away, but on this coin, unusually, only his face has been erased. </i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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