306, Lot: 254. Estimate $150. Sold for $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Stratonicaea. Caracalla, with Plautilla. AD 198-217. Æ (34mm, 19.97 g, 12h). Claudius Dionysios, prytanis. Struck circa AD 202–203. [AV KAI M] AVP AИ KAI ΘЄ [CЄB ИЄ ΠΛAUTIΛΛA], confronted busts of Plautilla right, draped, and Caracalla left, laureate, draped, and cuirassed; c/m: laureate and draped bust right within oval incuse / Hekate standing left, holding [patera] and torch; to left, hound standing left, head right. SNG von Aulock – (but cf. 2695 for same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen –; Karl 305/303–4 (for obv. die/rev. type); for c/m: Howgego 84. Fine, brown surfaces.

Large bronze issues of the Carian cities of Alinda, Alabanda, and Stratonicea proclaim Plautilla to be a “new goddess” after her marriage to Caracalla, sometimes overtly referring to her as Hera. As Ken Harl notes (Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East: A.D. 180-275 [Berkeley, CA: University of California Press], p. 41): “By implication, Caracalla was envisioned as a youthful Zeus, so that the imperial marriage became a symbolic reenactment of the celestial one.”