Caracalla. AD 198-217. AV Aureus (21mm, 6.43 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck AD 216. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM, laureate and cuirassed bust left / P M TR P XVIIII COS IIII P P, Sol, holding reins in right hand, whip in left, driving galloping quadriga left. RIC IV 282d; Calicó 2749; BMCRE 174; Cohen -. EF, Wonderful portrait.
Toward the end of the 2nd century the cult of the Unconquered Sun, Sol Invictus was brought to Rome from the East following the campaigns of Septimius Severus. As a reverse type, Caracalla uses Sol in the quadriga to symbolize himself as “pacifier of the world,” and, perhaps, as political propaganda intended to have him viewed as one who is as unconquerable as the Sun.
