Review: For "Fans" of Caracalla

Nice coins. Nice write-up. I have nothing to add other than to state that his baths must have been a glorious sight. They were part baths, part library, part social center, and part gymnasium. They must have been an awesome place to visit.



Finally, I would not have wanted my daughter to be his wife, despite the nice coins:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulvia_Plautilla

 

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I apologize for intruding in your thread so much Jwt708 -- it is a fascinating subject for me also. I am going to post my Severan "Victory over Britannia" coin set photos in a separate thread so as not to intrude further.

 

I think I need to work on the photos for my Caracalla coins, but here are the latest renditions of the same three:



And my first provincial coin of Caracalla just arrived in the mail... courtesy of Mr. Dorney (pictures not my own, as it is currently slabbed):

 

Love the new provincial!

 

No intrusion at all!

 

Nice sequence of coins showing Caracalla from boy to man (how many emperors can we do that with?).

And the reverse composition on the provincial is quite pleasing.

 

Speaking of Caracalla's bath, there was an interesting article in the magazine "A Palace for the People: " by doctoral researcher Sadi Maréchal. Really there are plenty of good articles in it that I think most of us here would enjoy reading. There are a couple articles unrelated to Caracalla like one in a continuing series about Greek philosophers, another about Christian martyrs, a lengthy review of The Final Pagan Generation, and a couple more.

 

Thanks for the info on old Septimius. I guess he was 65 when he died.

 

Yes, my goal is a portrait of Caracalla from each year of his reign (from the ones that we can identify anyway). From there I'll start filling in other issues and interesting provincials (but I felt I had to nab that one when I saw it - the portrait is nice, and the reverse is very interesting. It has been described as "Nemesis wearing polos standing facing, head right, holding rein or halter. Serapis seated left holding sceptre, Cerberus at feet." Cerberus kinda did it for me...). This will be a long term project though, as I have so many medievals I want too...

 

Oops! Wrong thread. [Post moved] Sorry!

 

I had always assumed that the Geta killing was in Rome since they had returned there soon after Septimius died. I believe the main reason Septimius went to Britain was to give the boys something to do and, in vain, develop a relationship other than hate. Septimius probably figured, correctly, that he was in more danger of being killed in Rome by Caracalla than in Britain by barbarians.

I will take this opportunity to show again my favorite recent acquisition. This Domna tetradrachm of Alexandria is dated year 20 (LK) which began August 29, 211. It shows Caracalla and Geta shaking hands (not a real photo but idealized in line with the wishes of Septimius). Since Geta died on December 26, 211, the coin was not made very long. My guess would be about half a second after Caracalla saw one.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only coin showing the two together after Septimius died. There are earlier joint coins but they would have been approved by Septimius and not the boys. The Marcianopolis below is from the period when Geta was still Caesar. Caracalla later ordered the destruction of these but this one and many others of its type would have been buried by that time. I find it interesting that someone at the Alexandria mint even thought to issue the handshake coin for LK.

 

@jamesicus; I was able to verify that Sep Sev's ashes were carried back to Rome: "His sons broke off the operation and set sail back to Rome, carrying the cremated ashes of their father in an urn which they laid to rest in the Mausoleum of Hadrian". This is a quote from "Chronicle of the Roman Emperors" by Chris Scarre.

 

@Bing
Thank you very much -- excellent research and information.

 

me too!

 

Now I would like to find out if was the awful British food, or the atrocious British weather -- or a combination of both -- that killed off Septimius (and later Constantius)?

 

When I was researching the above, I read that Sep Sev was already sick when he departed for Britannia. So "infirm", that he had to be carried in a litter to and around Britannia.

 

Thanks Jwt708, I bought a copy of this issue (# 2) from the publisher today, together with the newest issue (#10) about Ancient Royalty.

In the past, because of his unsympathetic character, I had decided not to collect Caracalla, but some of his coins accumulated miraculously in my collection, somehow. And they are splendid portraits, too.



Young and innocent...



Mean and scowling!



Curious, a fine Greek brockage, but tooled. A nice item that maybe cannot be called a coin.



Tiny coin (17 mm) of Nicopolis, Moesia



AE27 Stobi, Macedonia, a bit smoothed but still rather nice.

 

i have two coins of him, a denarious with lX the long way, and a Markianopolis Ae with a misspelling of the city.

 

Markianopliton, nice!