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Geta - Roman Caesar: 198-209 - Emperor: 209-211 A.D. -
Bronze 16mm (2.7 grams) of Marcianopolis in Moesia Inferior 198-209 A.D.
Π CEΠTI ΓETAC, youthful, draped bust right.
MARKIANOΠOΛITΩN, Tripod of Apollo
with serpent entwined around central leg.
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A sacrificial tripod was a type of
altar used by the
ancient Greeks. The most famous was the
Delphic
tripod, on
which the Pythian
priestess took her seat to deliver the
oracles of the
deity. The seat was formed by a circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which
a branch of
laurel was deposited when it was unoccupied by the priestess. In this sense,
by Classical times the tripod was sacred to
Apollo. The
mytheme of
Heracles
contesting with Apollo for the tripod appears in vase-paintings older than the
oldest written literature. The oracle originally may have been related to the
primal deity, the Earth.
Another well-known tripod was the
Plataean Tripod, made from a tenth part of the spoils taken from the
Persian army after the
Battle of Plataea. This consisted of a golden basin, supported by a
bronze
serpent with three heads (or three serpents intertwined), with a list of the
states that had taken part in the war inscribed on the coils of the serpent. The
golden bowl was carried off by the
Phocians during
the
Third Sacred War; the stand was removed by the emperor
Constantine to
Constantinople (modern
Istanbul),
where it still can be seen in the
hippodrome, the Atmeydanı, although in damaged condition, the heads
of the serpents disappeared however one is now on display at the nearby Istanbul
Archaeology Museums. The inscription, however, has been restored almost
entirely. Such tripods usually had three ears (rings which served as
handles) and frequently had a central upright as support in addition to the
three legs.
Tripods frequently are mentioned by
Homer as prizes
in
athletic games and as complimentary gifts; in later times, highly decorated
and bearing inscriptions, they served the same purpose. They also were used as
dedicatory
offerings to the deities, and in the dramatic contests at the
Dionysia
the victorious
choregus (a wealthy citizen who bore the expense of equipping and training
the chorus) received a crown and a tripod. He would either dedicate the tripod
to some deity or set it upon the top of a marble structure erected in the form
of a small circular temple in a street in
Athens, called
the street of tripods, from the large number of memorials of this kind.
One of these, the
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, erected by him to commemorate his victory
in a dramatic contest in
335 BC, still
stands. The form of the victory tripod, now missing from the top of the
Lysicrates monument, has been rendered variously by scholars since the
eighteenth century.
The scholar
Martin L. West writes that the sibyl at Delphi shows many traits of
shamanistic practices, likely inherited or influenced from Central Asian
practices. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a tripod, while making her
prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state, similar to shamans, and her
utterings, unintelligible.
According to Herodotus (The Histories, I.144), the victory tripods were not
to be taken from the temple sanctuary precinct, but left there for dedication.
Marcianopolis, or Marcianople was an ancient Roman city in
Thracia. It was located at the site of modern day
Devnya,
Bulgaria.
The city was so renamed by Emperor
Trajan after
his sister
Ulpia Marciana, and was previously known as Parthenopolis. Romans repulsed a
Gothic attack to
this town in 267 (or
268), during the
reign of
Gallienus.
Diocletian
made it the capital of the
Moesia Secunda province.
Valens made
it his winter quarters in 368 and succeeding years, Emperor
Justinian
I restored and fortified it. In 587, it was sacked by the king of the
Avars but at once retaken by the Romans. The Roman army quartered there in
596 before crossing the Danube to assault the Avars.
Between 893 and 972 it was one of the most important medieval cities in
south-eastern Europe.
 Publius Septimius Geta (March
7, 189–December
26, 211),
was a
Roman Emperor co-ruling with his father
Septimius Severus and his older brother
Caracalla
from 209 to his death.
Early
life
Geta was the younger son of Septimius Severus by his second wife
Julia
Domna. Geta was born in
Rome, at a time
when his father was only a provincial governor at the service of emperor
Commodus.
Geta was always in a place secondary to his older brother Lucius, the heir
known as Caracalla. Perhaps due to this, the relations between the two were
difficult from their early years. Conflicts were constant and often required the
mediation of their mother. To appease his youngest son, Septimius Severus gave
Geta the title of Augustus in 209. During the campaign against the
Britons of the early 3rd century, the imperial propaganda publicized a happy
family that shared the responsibilities of rule. Caracalla was his father's
second in command, Julia Domna the trusted counsellor and Geta had
administrative and bureaucratic duties. Truth was that the rivalry and antipathy
between the brothers was far from being improved.
Joint
Emperor
When Septimius Severus died in
Eboracum in the
beginning of 211, Caracalla and Geta were proclaimed joint emperors and returned
to Rome.
Regardless, the shared throne was not a success: the brothers argued about
every decision, from law to political appointments. Later sources speculate
about the desire of the two of splitting the empire in two halves. By the end of
the year, the situation was unbearable. Caracalla tried to murder Geta during
the festival of
Saturnalia
without success. Later in December he arranged a meeting with his brother in his
mother's apartments, and had him murdered in her arms by
centurions.
Following Geta's assassination, Caracalla
damned his memoryy and ordered his name to be removed from all inscriptions.
The now sole emperor also took the opportunity to get rid of his political
enemies, on the grounds of conspiracy with the deceased.
Cassius
Dio
[1]
stated that around 20,000 persons of both sexes were killed and/or proscribed
during this time.
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