Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 1138. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Pautalia. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ 28mm (14.49 g, 12h). Struck AD 215-217. Laureate heroic bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder / Hygieia standing right, serpent on stola, holding patera over altar surmounted by bust of Caracalla, and Asclepius standing left, holding serpent-entwined staff; garlanded tetrastyle temple in background, pediment decorated with coiled serpent. Ruzicka 619 var. (no temple); Mouchmov 4237 var. (same); SNG Copenhagen -; Varbanov -. Good VF, green and olive patina, light smoothing. Very rare.

During the last five years of his life, following the murder of his younger brother Geta in AD 212, Caracalla was much troubled by illness, probably largely psychosomatic brought on by the guilt of having the blood of his brother on his hands. On his way to fight the Parthians in AD 214, he paid a special visit to the great shrine of Asclepius at Pergamum and participated in its mysteries in the hopes of finding a cure. While that city in particular celebrated the event with a series of large bronze medallions, other cities along the imperial route took the opportunity to strike coinage in a similar vein in the hopes that they too might participate in effecting an imperial cure in some small way.