The Secular Games of AD 204

438, Lot: 537. Estimate $300. Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ As (25mm, 10.09 g, 12h). Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games) issue. Rome mint. Struck AD 204. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG PONT TR P VII, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / COS LVDOS SAECVL [F]EC, S C in exergue, Liber (Bacchus), wearing leopard's skin, standing right, with panther at feet, holding cantharus and thyrsus, facing Hercules standing left, holding club and lion's skin. RIC IV 421 corr. (rev. legend). VF, green patina, some roughness, pit on obverse. Very rare, one of only two in CoinArchives.

Ex Lanz 125 (28 November 2005), lot 862.

Caracalla’s father Septimius Severus dedicated the Secular Games of AD 204 to both Hercules and Bacchus, the patron deities of his hometown of Lepcis Magna in modern-day Lybia. Dio (77.16.3) records that the emperor also built an enormous temple to the gods, although he does not specify its location.