The Most Ruthless of All

One of the interests of students of ancient coins is to research and write about the images on them especially of that periods' most famous rulers. In doing so we often speak of that person's talents or predilections. Was Alexander the Great the world's greatest conqueror? Was Antoninus Pius the most humane Roman Emperor? Did the numismatic representations of Cleopatra show her to be a beautiful woman? That sort of thing. I would like to consider an unflattering appellation, at least as far as we think it would be, as to who of ancient rulers was the most ruthless of them from Xerxes to Constantine.

First a digression into what being ruthless means. Socrates always insisted that we define the term we are discussing. I would like to see us make a distinction between ruthless and cruel, admittedly a fine one. Following the dictionary definition of those two words, being ruthless seems to imply that one is willing to do whatever is necessary to accomplish a goal, including being merciless about doing it. However, there does not need be a sadistic infliction of pain and suffering to do it, while being cruel implies that the infliction of pain and suffering is the main goal. If so, we can argue that a ruler like Julius Caesar was ruthless in achieving his goals, including the killing of some one million Gauls, but there is no evidence that this Caesar liked, derived enjoyment from, taking lives as some emperors, like Caligula (kill him in a way that he knows he is dying) did with relish. The same with Augustus, who in his own way was a ruthless as his adoptive father, authorizing the death of an elderly Cicero or killing a youth, Caesarion (a multitude of Caesars is no good thing) or banishing his daughter to an island prison, almost for life. That is what we are talking about here, not necessarily enjoying the infliction of pain, but willing to do it. Again, since we cannot always (or ever) know the mind of another, this is, indeed, a fine distinction.

My candidate for the most ruthless of ancient rulers is Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, (188-217) better known from his acquired sobriquet, from his cloak, as Caracalla, a name he never used himself, just as Gaius Caesar did not like or use his nickname of Caligula. Now a few words about what we know of Caracalla. The sources are the two historians Herodian and Dio Cassius who lived close in time to Caracalla and the later Historia Augusta. As ancient historians go, Dio and Herodian are pretty good, whereas the author(s) of the Historia Augusta, well, not so much. Putting all three together does not offer a flattering picture of the emperor. The plain facts of which no one is in doubt are his parents, the emperor Septimius Severus and his mother, the empress Julia Domna and his little brother, Geta, of whom more in a bit. His father associated Caracalla in his reign early to give the youngster a taste of ruling and tried doing the same for the younger Geta. The rivalry of the two siblings was worthy of an afternoon TV show featuring relationship mayhem exacerbated by a host and audience out for blood. Having those two together was like having Michael the Archangel and Lucifer sharing lunch. One could exhaust a thesaurus trying to find a word that would describe the vehemence of their fraternal hatred for each other. That their father was hoping to have the two share the imperial throne after his death (which Caracalla may have attempted to hasten) would turn out to be a Sisyphusean labor, which brings us to the ruthless part.

Most readers here probably already know that after the death of Septimius in York, the two brothers travelled back to Rome, as far apart as two travelers on the same road could be, divided the imperial palace into two separate living quarters and generally steered clear of each other, that is until Caracalla lured Geta into a conference with their mother, Julia, and used the meeting to stab Geta to death in his mother's arms. Now killing one's brothers to get the throne is not all that ruthless, or uncommon in earlier times, and hardly limited to the Roman Empire, but what followed next was. Determined to excise the very memory of Geta from the historical record, Caracalla not only smashed his statutes and defaced his portraits but murdered every person who had had anything to do with his brother. Some 20,000, from palace officials to place servants were eliminated to make sure no one would ever speak his name again. That kid of damnatio memoriae was as ruthless as one can get. Now, many readers here can undoubtedly find other incidences of Caracalla behaving badly but i will mention one more which usually does not get mentioned much. Caracalla had some kind of fetish for Alexander the Great, including having some Roman soldiers trained and equipped to duplicate the Macedonian phalanx. As part of worship of Alexander Caracalla decided to travel to, not surprisingly, Alexandria where upon his arrival he was welcomed by the populace (smart move). The populace of Alexandria was known for being boisterous and irreverent (bad move). It seems that Caracalla was of a short stature and his hero Alexander the Great was not. Apparently the crowd having noticed this, made mention of it and the ensuing banter became a lot more than that. Caracalla called in the troops and turned them loose on the city. The death toll and damage was enormous. Ruthless in spades.

Now I will leave to to others to find and post more matters from the reign of Caracalla or to tell us who else belongs up there among the more ruthless of rulers. Below are some coins associated with the emperor and his family.

From the left, a sestertius of Septimius Severus, Caracalla's father RIC 692a and a sesterius of Julia Domna, his mother, RIC 859 and an as of our bete noir, Caracalla RICIV 519, himself. On the bottom from the left, a Syrian tetradrachma from the mint of Sidon with a very unpleasant but apropos visage, Sear Greek Imperial 2679, one of the first of the new antoninian double denarii of about 50% silver alloy and 5.1 grams, Sear 6805, a silver denarius of his brother, Geta, sear 1913, and lastly a denarius of caracalla, Sear 6805. Hope you like the post and have something to add.

 

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Very nice coins Kevin !

On this coin little brother Geta is clasping hands with Felicitas. She is the goddess of good luck and happiness. I suppose she didn't warn him of what was to come....



Geta as Caesar, denarius.
Laodicea mint, ca 198-200 AD.
3,39 g.
Obv. L SEPTIMIVS GETA CAES, draped & cuirassed bust right.
Rev. FELICITAS TEMPOR, Felicitas standing right, holding long caduceus, clasping hands with Geta standing left, holding cornucopiae.
RIC 94.

 

Nice write-up and coins! I especially like your Septimius Severus sestertius – it has an especially nice portrait.

This early denarius shows Caracalla as a sweet little boy and proclaims him the "happiness of the Empire" (imperii felicitas) on the reverse. I guess that was wishful thinking:

Caracalla, Roman Empire, denarius, 196–198 AD, Rome mint. Obv: M AVR ANTON CAES PONTIF; bareheaded bust of Caracalla r. Rev: IMPERII FELICITAS; Felicitas standing l., holding caduceus and child. 18mm, 3.53g. Ref: RIC IV,1 Caracalla 9.

Here is a denarius from Caracalla's early years as augustus:

Caracalla, Roman Empire, denarius, 210–213 AD, Rome mint. Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, laureate head of Caracalla r. Rev: PROVIDENTIAE DEORVM, Providence standing l., holding baton and scepter, globe at feet l. 19mm, 3.07g. Ref: RIC IV–1 227.

On this later coin, he looks much more mean and menacing:

Caracalla, Roman Empire, denarius, 215 AD, Rome mint. Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM; laureate head of Caracalla r. Rev: P M TR P XVIII COS IIII P P; Apollo, naked except for cloak flying behind, standing l., holding branch in extended r. hand and with l. hand lyre set on altar. 21mm, 3.04g. Ref: RIC IV Caracalla 254.

Also, as you mentioned above, Caracalla introduced the double-denarius that we today refer to as an "antoninianus." The coin was massively overvalued:

Caracalla, Roman Empire, AR antoninianus, 213–217 AD, Rome mint. Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM; bust of Caracalla, radiate, draped, cuirassed, r. Rev: VENVS VICTRIX; Venus, draped, standing l., holding Victory in extended r. hand and spear in l. hand, leaning on shield. 23mm, 4.60g. Ref: RIC IV Caracalla 311C. Ex JAZ Numismatics, Ex Mat collection.

 

No Felicitas for little brother. Atrocitas would be his lot.

 

Yes on that sestertius of Septimius. I have found that while the silver of the early Severans is fairly easy to find in good condition, the brass is often poorly fabricated and minted and more likely to be heavily worn, something more akin to the Caracalla as in the grouping. I can only speculate that my anecdotal observation is accurate and why that might be.

 

according to Caracalla himself, he was haunted in his dreams by his father Septimius and his brother Geta , chasing him with daggers trying to kill 'm.
looks like he had a nightmare on this denarius and just woke up:

 

Your impressions on wear match my own. It is easy to find immaculate denarii of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna that can have seen hardly any circulation. For sestertii, on the other hand, examples like your coins or my specimen below are on the better end of the spectrum of what I have seen. I don't know if this observation can be generalized – but if so, it might have interesting implications for the circulation patterns of different denominations in the early Severan era.


Septimius Severus, Roman Empire, AE sestertius, 195–196 AD, Rome mint. Obv: L SEPT SE[V P]ERT AVG IMP VII; 29.5mm, bust of Septimius Severus, laureate, with drapery on l. shoulder, r. Rev: [DIVI] M PII F [P M] TR P III COS II P P; Felicitas, draped, standing l., foot on prow, holding caduceus in r, hand and cornucopiae in l. hand. 29.5mm, 20.23g. Ref: RIC IV Septimius Severus 701b.

 

Very nice and informative writeup, @kevin McGonigal .

UGLY SOUL


RI Caracalla 198-217 AR Denarius MONETA


SHE HAD A CHOICE... SHE MARRIED IT


RI Plautilla 202-205 CE m Caracalla AR Denarius 3.7g Concordia patera scepter RIC 363

 

@kevin McGonigal.......Nice coins!....'Green' with envy on the Domna.
Caracalla. AD 198-217. AR Denarius (3,48g). Rome mint. Struck AD 212-213.
Obv-ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, Laureate head right.
Rev-MONETA AVG, Moneta standing left, holding scales and cornucopia.
RIC IV 224; RSC 165.

 

My own thought was that as later silver coins were increasingly debased, those of the Severans were pulled from circulation and saved and hoarded. As the brass had no intrinsic value they would likely be the ones to stay in circulation continuously and thus be subject to wear and tear. That's just an educated guess. I don't know if there is any evidence of this.

 

Yes, I love those big brass with the glossy, green patina. I also wish the reverse had been a better strike.

 

Hardly! She was used by her father as part of his move to take over. Caracalla hated Plautianus and Plautilla and engineered his downfall. There are no heros in this story.

 

Nice coins. Caracalla was indeed pretty ruthless. Killing your own brother is pretty bad...

Speaking of whom, I just got a Geta Provincial - it is small and pitted, but it seems to be scarce - I could only find one other example anywhere (in two different auctions). The portrait is charming, I think:



Geta as Caesar Æ 16
(c. 198-209 A.D.)
Bithynia, Prusa ad Olympum
K Λ CE ΓETAC, bare head right / ΠPOYCAEΩN, Eagle standing left on thunderbolt.
RG 114; SNG Leypold -;
SNG von Aulock -.
(2.47 grams / 16 mm)

Notes: Found only one example:

Leu Numismatik AG Web Auction 9 7-8 Sep 2019 Lot 676 Price realized: 150 CHF
https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=3366&lot=676

Saint Paul Antiques Auction 18, Lot 286, 13.10.2018
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6017369

 

Charming yes, and poignant. He had no idea, at this stage, how matters would turn out. At least I think that. I have found almost nothing about Geta anywhere. Was he actually a nicer person or was he just as ruthless and less fortunate than his brother?

 

I like this one because Caracalla looks like a real thug! It's the furrowed brow, I think.


Caracalla AD 198-217.
Roman AR Denarius 3.37 g, 19.7 mm.
Rome mint, AD 211.
Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, laureate head, right.
Rev: INDVLG FECVNDAE, Julia Domna as Indulgentia, wearing polos, seated left on cerule chair, extending right hand and holding scepter.
Refs: RIC 214; BMCRE 73; RCV 6805.

 

And piercing eyes.

 

Cassius Dio ought to know. He lived at that time and saw it with his own eyes.

 

Compared to some Parthians and Byzantines (Seleucids, medieval Popes???), Caracalla was a nice guy. He only killed one brother (plus an ex wife and a few hundred Alexandrians and who knows.....). I have never subscribed to the theory that I had to admire the people who made the coins I collect. For that matter, I listen to music, watch movies and follow sports without wanting to be like their creators or buying the products some of them endorse. Caracalla was a messed up kid who fit right in with his crowd. Do I pity a guy who gets killed while relieving himself behind a bush? Do I consider Justin Martialis a hero? No to both. Do I think it excessively convenient that the name of the soldier who stabbed Caracalla included Just and Mars? Yup. If I were writing historical fiction, I would have a scene where a bunch of guys drew lots to see who would save Rome by doing the deed. The Roman form of selecting leaders was not as upright as most of us expect today and I am glad we do things a bit differently in the time I live. It does, however make the study of history more interesting than what we would have if every one of them died in bed aged over 100.

 

Enjoyed the read and all posts, thanks everyone.