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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 2510879, member: 44316&quot;]Roman emperors took vows (VOTA) promising to do something for the gods in exchange for something they wanted. The emperors wanted a long reign, of course. In the early empire, beginning with Augustus, vows were commonly for ten years. In late Rome, in many cases, Roman coins say something like &quot;VOT V MVLT X&quot; referring to vows for five years of rule and many others besides (in this case, ten years), where these are vows made or renewed--SVSCEPTA. If the emperor actually made it to that number of years, he fulfilled (SOLVTA) the promise. But what did they actually do at those occasions? </p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a picture of part of the ceremony:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]534009[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]534010[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Caracalla, denarius, struck c. 207 AD.</p><p>VOTA SOLVT DEC&nbsp; (vows for ten years fulfilled) COS II (He was COS II in and became COS III in 208).</p><p>Caracalla standing right holding patera over tripod altar, flute player facing behind altar, sacrificial bull about to be slain by a victimarius with raised ax. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sear 6907 variety (his is COS III). BMC (Septimius and Caracalla) 577 variety (theirs is COS III). RIC Caracalla 204 (COS II) page 240 &quot;Scarce, 209-212&quot; which must be wrong on both counts. Hill 946 is COS III &quot;R4&quot; (0 or 1 in all the hoards he studied) and COS II is omitted, so it must be very rare, both as a type and as COS II.</p><p><br /></p><p>Show us some coins with vows![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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