Caracalla - Roman Emperor: 198-217 A.D. -
Fourrée Silver Denarius 18mm (2.7 grams) Rome mint: 215 A.D.
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PMTRPXVIIICOSIIIIPP - Mars standing left, stepping on helmet, holding branch and
spear.
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A fourrée is a
coin, most often a
counterfeit, that is made from a base metal core that has been plated with a
precious metal to look like its solid metal counter part. The term is normally
applied to ancient silver plated coins such as the
Roman
denarius
and
Greek
drachma, but the term is also applied to other plated coins.
Cicero mentions that
M. Marius Gratidianus, a
praetor
during the 80s BC, was widely praised for developing tests to detect false
coins, and removing them from circulation. Gratidianus was killed under
Sulla, who introduced his own anti-forgery law (lex Cornelia de falsis),
that reintroduced serrated edges on precious metal coins, an anticounterfeiting
measure that had been tried earlier. Serrated denarii, or serrati, which
featured about 20 notched chisel mark on the edge of the coin, were produced to
demonstrate the integrity of the coin. This effort was in vain, as examples of
fourrée serrati attest.
Production of fourrées began almost as early as the
production of the first coins in Asia Minor in the 7th century BC. These coins
were produced by people wishing to profit by producing a counterfeit containing
less precious metal content than its purported face value. The most common
method for producing a fourrée was to take a flan of copper, wrap it with silver
foil, heat it, and strike it with the
dies. If the coin was sufficiently heated and struck hard enough, a layer of
eutectic alloy (a mixture of 72% silver and 28% copper that has the lowest
melting point of any mixture of these two metals) would be produced, fusing the
layers together. Sometimes eutectic was sprinkled between the layers to increase
the bond. Exposure of the deception was often due to wear at the high points of
the coin, or moisture trapped between the layers that caused the foil to bubble
and then break as the core corrodes.
A later method for making fourrées involved adding silver to
the base metal coin after it had been struck. This method allowed for even less
silver to be used, which became more important in order to make counterfeiting
profitable as the official coinage was
debased.
The exact method by which these coins were silvered is unclear, although
possible methods include dipping the coin in molten silver, brushing the coins
with molten silver, or dusting the coin with powdered silver and heating it
until the silver melted.
Caracalla (April
4, 188
–
April 8,
217.
Caracallus ), born Lucius Septimius Bassianus and later called Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, was the
eldest son of
Septimius Severus and
Roman
Emperor from 211 to 217.[1]
He was one of the most nefarious of Roman emperors.[2][3]
Caracalla's reign was notable for:
"Caracalla was the common enemy of all mankind," wrote
Edward Gibbon.[4]
He spent his reign traveling from province to province so that each could
experience his "rapine and cruelty."[4]
Rise to power
Caracalla, of mixed
Punic/Berber[5][6]
and Syrian
Arab descent,
[7][8][9]
was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus in
Lugdunum,
Gaul (now
Lyon,
France), the
son of the later Emperor Septimius Severus and
Julia
Domna. At the age of seven, his name was changed to Marcus Aurelius
Septimius Bassianus Antoninus to solidify connection to the family of
Marcus Aurelius. He was later given the
nickname
Caracalla, which referred to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore
and which he made fashionable.
His father, who had taken the imperial throne in 193, died in 211 while
touring the northern marches at
Eboracum (York),
and Caracalla was proclaimed co-emperor with his brother
Publius Septimius Antoninius Geta. However since both of them wanted to be
the sole ruler, tensions between the brothers were evident in the few months
they ruled the empire together (they even considered dividing the empire in two,
but were persuaded not to do so by their mother). In December 211, Caracalla had
Geta, the family of his former father-in-law
Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, his wife
Fulvia Plautilla (also his paternal second cousin), and her brother
assassinated. He persecuted Geta's supporters and ordered a
damnatio memoriae by the Senate against his brother.
Reign
In 213 Caracalla went north to the German frontier to deal with the
Alamanni
who were causing trouble in the
Agri Decumates. The emperor managed to win the sympathy of the soldiers with
generous pay rises and popular gestures, like marching on foot among the
ordinary soldiers, eating the same food, and even grinding his own flour with
them.
Caracalla defeated the Alamanni in a battle near the river
Main, but failed to
win a decisive victory over them. After a peace agreement was brokered, the
senate conferred upon him the title "Germanicus Maximus". In the next year the
emperor traveled to the East.
When the inhabitants of
Alexandria heard Caracalla's claims that he had killed Geta in self-defense,
they produced a satire mocking this claim, as well as Caracalla's other
pretensions. Caracalla responded to this insult savagely in 215 by slaughtering
the deputation of leading citizens who had unsuspectingly assembled before the
city to greet his arrival, and then unleashed his troops for several days of
looting and plunder in Alexandria. According to historian Cassius Dio, over
20,000 people were killed.
During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised the annual pay of an average
legionary to 675
denarii and lavished many benefits on the army which he both feared and
admired, as instructed by his father Septimius Severus who had told him to
always mind the soldiers and ignore everyone else.[10]
His official portraiture marked a break with the detached images of the
philosopher-emperors who preceded him: his close-cropped haircut is that of a
soldier, his pugnacious scowl a realistic and threatening presence. The rugged
soldier-emperor iconic type was adopted by several of the following emperors who
depended on the support of the legions, like
Trebonianus Gallus.[11]
Seeking to secure his own legacy, Caracalla also commissioned one of Rome's
last major architectural achievements, the
Baths of Caracalla, the largest public bath ever built in ancient Rome. The
main room of the baths was larger than
St. Peter's Basilica, and could easily accommodate over 2,000 Roman citizens
at one time. The bath house opened in 216, complete with private rooms and
outdoor tracks. Internally it was decorated with golden trim and mosaics.
The Roman Empire and its provinces in 210 AD
Fall
While travelling from
Edessa to begin a war with
Parthia, he
was assassinated while urinating at a roadside near
Harran on
April 8,
217 by Julius
Martialis, an officer in the imperial bodyguard.
Herodian
says that Martialis' brother had been executed a few days earlier by Caracalla
on an unproven charge; Cassius Dio, on the other hand, says that Martialis was
resentful at not being promoted to the rank of centurion. The escort of the
emperor gave him privacy to relieve himself, and Martialis ran forward and
killed Caracalla with a single sword stroke. He immediately fled on horseback,
but was killed by a bodyguard archer.[citation
needed]
Caracalla was succeeded by the Praetorian Prefect of the Guard,
Macrinus,
who almost certainly was part of the conspiracy against the emperor.[citation
needed]
His nickname
According to
Aurelius Victor in his Epitome de Caesaribus, the
cognomen "Caracalla"
refers to a Gallic
cloak that Caracalla adopted as a personal fashion, which spread to his army
and his court.[12]
Cassius Dio[13]
and the
Historia Augusta[14]
agree that his nickname derived from his cloak, but do not mention its country
of origin.
Legendary king of Britain
Geoffrey of Monmouth's legendary
History of the Kings of Britain makes Caracalla a king of Britain,
referring to him by his actual name "Bassianus", rather than the nickname
Caracalla. After Severus's death, the Romans wanted to make Geta king of
Britain, but the Britons preferred Bassianus because he had a British mother.
The two brothers fought a battle in which Geta was killed, and Bassianus
succeeded to the throne. He ruled until he was betrayed by his
Pictish allies
and overthrown by
Carausius,
who, according to Geoffrey, was a Briton, rather than the
Menapian Gaul
that he actually was.[15]
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