Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1089. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Philippopolis. Caracalla. 198-217 AD. Æ Medallion (42mm, 40.14 gm). AVT KAI M AVP CEVHPOC ANTWNEINOC AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / KOINON QRAK ALEZ PUQEIA IFLIP (sic), Caracalla standing right in military uniform, holding reversed spear in right hand, parazonium in left; left foot spurning bound captive. Cf. Varbanov 1258 var. (bust type and legends); BMC Thrace -; SNG Copenhagen -; Mionnet -. Good VF, green and brown patina, minor smoothing. ($3000)

These grand medallions glorifying the emperor can be dated to 213-214, when the Roman army was moving through Thrace and Macedonia on its way to confront the Parthians, and Caracalla was indulging his fantasy of being a heroic conqueror of the same mold as his model, Alexander the Great. Caracalla's increasingly erratic behavior in the course of this grand procession would eventually lead his officers, under Macrinus, to assassinate him.