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This remarkably rare issue was struck at some point during AD 213, during which year Cassius Dio relates that Caracalla had departed Rome in order to suppress an alliance of Germanic tribes who had broken through the Limes Germanicus into the province of Raetia [Roman History, LXXVIII.13]. Broadly referred to as the 'Alemanni' by the contemporary writer Herodian [History of the Empire IV.7], this confederation was to become an especially implacable enemy of future Roman emperors such as Aurelian.
Dio describes, in some detail, the causes of the conflict. A vocal detractor of Caracalla's arbitrary operations and bent morality in his Roman History, Dio states that the emperor had ignored Alemmanic pleas for aid over a tribal conflict, and resolved instead to publically execute their leaders [ibid] It was these slayings, according to the historian, that had incited the initial surge across the Limes. In retaliation, Caracalla quickly mobilised the famed Legio II Traiana Fortis, renowned for their campaigns in Parthia, Egypt and Syria during the reign of Trajan, who crushed the marauders with ease. This prompted Dio to reflect that the whole debacle was likely devised by Caracalla as a guaranteed way of acquiring military prestige.
One must deduce from its dating that the present specimen was struck to commemorate Caracalla's Germanic victories either during or directly after the campaign [a theory supported by Mattingly, RIC IV, p. 86]. The obverse legend, ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, indicates that it was minted before he was granted (or self-granted) the cognomen Germanicus Maximus, which first began to appear in the form ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM on his coinage the following year. The detailed reverse is characteristically braggadocious; it displays Caracalla riding in a quadriga and holding an eagle-tipped sceptre aloft in a triumphal fashion.
Assessing the situation in 213, Caracalla might have thought his reign was progressing satisfactorily. He had cemented the support of the legions by quadrupling their rate of pay to four denarii per day and had in the previous year finally eliminated his brother and rival, Geta, along with 20,000 of his sympathisers, according to modern estimates. His introduction of unprecedentedly high tax rates, consistent confiscation of Roman estates and deplorable character however meant that he remained a loathed figure, unpopular among the aristocracy and masses alike. Unsurprisingly, then, multiple attempts were made against his life before he succumbed to a plot instigated in 217 by the praetorian prefect Macrinus; his successor and the first emperor to hail from the equestrian class. P M TR P XVI IMP II - Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate Sexta Decima, Imperator Secundum: High priest, holder of tribunician power for the 16th time, supreme commander [Imperator] for the second time.
Dio describes, in some detail, the causes of the conflict. A vocal detractor of Caracalla's arbitrary operations and bent morality in his Roman History, Dio states that the emperor had ignored Alemmanic pleas for aid over a tribal conflict, and resolved instead to publically execute their leaders [ibid] It was these slayings, according to the historian, that had incited the initial surge across the Limes. In retaliation, Caracalla quickly mobilised the famed Legio II Traiana Fortis, renowned for their campaigns in Parthia, Egypt and Syria during the reign of Trajan, who crushed the marauders with ease. This prompted Dio to reflect that the whole debacle was likely devised by Caracalla as a guaranteed way of acquiring military prestige.
One must deduce from its dating that the present specimen was struck to commemorate Caracalla's Germanic victories either during or directly after the campaign [a theory supported by Mattingly, RIC IV, p. 86]. The obverse legend, ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, indicates that it was minted before he was granted (or self-granted) the cognomen Germanicus Maximus, which first began to appear in the form ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM on his coinage the following year. The detailed reverse is characteristically braggadocious; it displays Caracalla riding in a quadriga and holding an eagle-tipped sceptre aloft in a triumphal fashion.
Assessing the situation in 213, Caracalla might have thought his reign was progressing satisfactorily. He had cemented the support of the legions by quadrupling their rate of pay to four denarii per day and had in the previous year finally eliminated his brother and rival, Geta, along with 20,000 of his sympathisers, according to modern estimates. His introduction of unprecedentedly high tax rates, consistent confiscation of Roman estates and deplorable character however meant that he remained a loathed figure, unpopular among the aristocracy and masses alike. Unsurprisingly, then, multiple attempts were made against his life before he succumbed to a plot instigated in 217 by the praetorian prefect Macrinus; his successor and the first emperor to hail from the equestrian class. P M TR P XVI IMP II - Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate Sexta Decima, Imperator Secundum: High priest, holder of tribunician power for the 16th time, supreme commander [Imperator] for the second time.