Return from the East

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 674. Estimate $15000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $13000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Caracalla. AD 198-217. AV Aureus (7.48 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 202. ANTON P AVG PON TR P V COS, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ADVENTVS AVGVSTOR, quinqereme with five oarsmen left, the two Augusti and Geta seated left at stern. RIC IV 58; Calicó 2660 (same dies as illustration); BMCRE p. 232, note †; Cohen -. Near EF, luster around the devices, a few minor marks. Very rare.

Septimius' Parthian campaign reached its climax in AD 198, with the capture of the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon. On this occasion Septimius was acclaimed imperator for the eleventh time, and he received the title Parthicus Maximus. His victorious campaign was celebrated on the coinage over the next few years, and an arch was erected in Rome in commemoration of the event in AD 203. Septimius elevated Caracalla, who was with him in the east, to joint Augustus in AD 198, in the aftermath of his great eastern triumph. This issue, struck in AD 202, celebrates the return of the emperors from their eastern campaign.