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Caracalla - Roman Emperor: 211-217 A.D. -
Bronze 26mm (6.3 grams) City of Alexandria Troas: 211-217 A.D.
M. AVREL. ANTONINO, Laureate and cuirased bust right.
COL. AVG. TROA., Eagle flying right, carrying head of bull.
* Numismatic Note: Rare, possibly unpublished type with the
eagle and bull possibly alluding to the symbols of the legion stationed at the
city.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Alexandria Troas ("Alexandria of the
Troad", mod.
Eski Stambul) is an ancient
Greek city situated on the
Aegean Sea
near the northern tip of
Turkey's
western coast, a little south of
Tenedos
(modern
Bozcaada). It is located in the modern Turkish province of
Çanakkale.
According to the
Catholic Encyclopedia, this site was first called Sigia; perhaps
about 310 BC
Antigonus refounded the city as Antigonia Troas. In its early years,
Troas was a port city that supplied the
Dorians with
resources and trade. The city was conquered by the
Helladic people and was nearly destroyed. It was rebuilt early in the next
century and the name was changed by
Lysimachus
to Alexandria Troas, in memory of
Alexander III
of Macedon (Pliny,
N.H. 5.124 merely states that the name changed from Antigonia to Alexandria). As
the chief port of north-west Asia Minor, the place prospered greatly in Roman
times, and the existing remains sufficiently attest its former importance.
Strabo mentions
that a
Roman colony was created at the location in the reign of
Augustus,
named Colonia Alexandria Augusta Troas (called simply Troas during
this period). Augustus,
Hadrian and
the rich grammarian
Herodes Atticus contributed greatly to its embellishment; the aqueduct still
preserved is due to the latter.
Constantine considered making Troas the capital of the
Roman
Empire.
In Roman times, it was a significant port for travelling between
Anatolia
and Europe.
Paul
of Tarsus sailed for Europe for the first time from Alexandria Troas (Acts,
16:8-11) and returned there from Europe (and there occurred later the episode of
the raising of
Eutychus (Acts
20:5-12).
Ignatius of
Antioch also paused at this city before continuing to his martyrdom at Rome
(Ad Philad. 11.2; Ad Smyrn. 12.1).
Several of its later
bishops are
known: Marinus in 325; Niconius in 344; Sylvanus at the beginning of the fifth
century; Pionius in 451; Leo in 787; Peter, friend of the
Patriarch Ignatius, and adversary to Michael, in the ninth century. In the
tenth century Troas is given as a suffragan of
Cyzicus and
distinct from the famous
Troy (Heinrich
Gelzer, Ungedruckte ... Texte der Notitiae episcopatuum, 552;
Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani, 64); it is not known when the
city was destroyed and the diocese disappeared. The city remains a
titular
see of the
Roman Catholic Church, Troadensis; the seat is vacant following the
resignation of the last bishop in 1971.
[1]
Troas is also a titular see of the
Orthodox Church under the
Ecumenical Patriarchate; the current hierarch is His Grace Bishop Savas (Zembillas)
of Troas.
[2]
The site as of 1911 was covered with
vallonea oaks, and has been much plundered (for example
Mehmed IV
took columns to adorn his new Valideh mosque in
Istanbul),
but the circuit of the old walls can be traced, and in several places they are
fairly well preserved. They had a circumference of about ten kilometres, and
were fortified with towers at regular intervals. Remains of some ancient
buildings, including a bath and gymnasium, can be found within this area.
Trajan built an
aqueduct which can still be traced. The harbour had two large basins, now almost
choked with sand. It is the subject of a recent study by German archaeologists
who are digging and surveying at the site.
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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