Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Electronic Auction 344 11 February 2015
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THRACE, Philippopolis. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (30mm, 19.45 g, 7h). Pythian Games issue. Struck AD 214. AVT K M AVP CEVH ANTΩNEINOC, laureate bust right / KOINON ΘPAKΩN AΛE[ΞANΔPI]A EN ΦI ΛIΠ ΠOΠO, Athlete standing right, holding palm frond and wreath; ΠV ΘIA across field. SNG Copenhagen –; Varbanov 1457 var. (obv. legend); Mouchmov, Philippopolis 390 var. (same). Fine, dark green-brown surfaces. Very rare.
From the Dr. George Spradling Collection.
The interesting series of medallions and coins celebrating the Pythian Games in Philippopolis inform us that the commune of Thracians had organized the games in honor of the emperor, no doubt in AD 214 during his journey through Thrace on his way to campaign against the Parthians. To further flatter the emperor (that is, if he himself was not responsible for this change), the games were now titled "Alexandrian" after Alexander the Great, with whom Caracalla was increasingly identifying himself. The historian Herodian (8.1.1-2) provides us with a glimpse of the emperor's obsession with Alexander at precisely this time:
Caracalla, after attending to matters in the garrison camps along the Danube river, went down into Thrace at the Macedonian border, and immediately he became Alexander the Great. To revive the memory of the Macedonian in every possible way, he ordered statues and paintings of his hero to be put on public display in all cities. He filled the Capitol, the rest of the temples, indeed, all Rome, with statues and paintings designed to suggest that he was a second Alexander.
At times we saw ridiculous portraits, statues with one body which had on each side of a single head the faces of Alexander and the emperor. Caracalla himself went about in Macedonian dress, affecting especially the broad sun hat and short boots. He enrolled picked youths in a unit which he labeled his Macedonian phalanx; its officers bore the names of Alexander's generals.
From the Dr. George Spradling Collection.
The interesting series of medallions and coins celebrating the Pythian Games in Philippopolis inform us that the commune of Thracians had organized the games in honor of the emperor, no doubt in AD 214 during his journey through Thrace on his way to campaign against the Parthians. To further flatter the emperor (that is, if he himself was not responsible for this change), the games were now titled "Alexandrian" after Alexander the Great, with whom Caracalla was increasingly identifying himself. The historian Herodian (8.1.1-2) provides us with a glimpse of the emperor's obsession with Alexander at precisely this time:
Caracalla, after attending to matters in the garrison camps along the Danube river, went down into Thrace at the Macedonian border, and immediately he became Alexander the Great. To revive the memory of the Macedonian in every possible way, he ordered statues and paintings of his hero to be put on public display in all cities. He filled the Capitol, the rest of the temples, indeed, all Rome, with statues and paintings designed to suggest that he was a second Alexander.
At times we saw ridiculous portraits, statues with one body which had on each side of a single head the faces of Alexander and the emperor. Caracalla himself went about in Macedonian dress, affecting especially the broad sun hat and short boots. He enrolled picked youths in a unit which he labeled his Macedonian phalanx; its officers bore the names of Alexander's generals.