The Games of AD 206

238, Lot: 482. Estimate $200. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Caracalla. AD 198-217. AR Denarius (21mm, 2.89 g, 1h). Rome mint. Struck AD 206. Laureate head right / LAETITIA TEMPORVM in exergue, ship with mast and sail in center of circus; above, four quadrigae driven left; below, ostrich, lion, zebra, bear, and stag right, bull butting left, bear right, head left. RIC IV 157; RSC 118. Near VF, toned, porous, a few vry minor flan splits. Rare.

The games of 206 repeat the festivities of 202, which celebrated the return of the imperial family from their successful eastern campaigns. This complex and crowded design recognizes most of the forms of entertainment at the games; the naumachia, a mock sea battle which involved flooding the Circus Maximus, the chariot races at the Hippodrome, and combat between wild beasts. In RIC the avian creature at the far left is called a cock, but on many coins it is clearly a long-necked, long-legged bird, either an ostrich or a crane. Both birds would typically appear in a farcical combat with African pygmies.