Caracalla’s German Campaigns

161, Lot: 252. Estimate $1000. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ Sestertius (26.49 g, 12h). Struck AD 213. Laureate and cuirassed bust right / Caracalla on horseback right, brandishing spear at prostrate enemy. RIC IV 526a var. (bust type); Banti 53 var. (same). Good VF, green patina, surfaces lightly smoothed. Very rare, and an unpublished bust type for issue.

This military reverse type is a direct reference to Caracalla's campaigns against the Alemanni, a confederation of Germanic tribes. Caracalla claimed a great military success against these tribes, and was subsequently awarded the title Germanicus Maximus by the Senate. In reality, peace was achieved through the establishment of regular subsidies which kept the tribes pacified, a success of propaganda that was becoming more common in the Empire. The reverse type closely imitates a popular victory type that was first used on sestertii of Trajan, commemorating his victorious Dacian campaigns (cf. RIC II 534).