The “New Goddess” Plautilla

315, Lot: 182. Estimate $300. Sold for $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Stratonicaea. Caracalla, with Plautilla. AD 198-217. Æ (36mm, 24.83 g, 12h). Claudius Dionysus, prytanis. Struck AD 202-203. [AV K]AI [M] AVP AИ KAI ΘЄ [CЄB ИЄ ΠΛAUTIΛΛA], confronted busts of Plautilla right, draped and wearing stephane, and Caracalla left, laureate, draped, and cuirassed; c/m: c/m: laureate and draped bust right within oval incuse / Zeus Panamaros on horseback right, holding scepter; altar to right. SNG von Aulock 2695 (same dies); for c/m: Howgego 84. Near VF, bluish-green patina, minor pitting.

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.”