Gladiator II, Ridley Scott's long-awaited sequel to his film Gladiator (2000), was released to nearly universal derision by classicists. Put bluntly, the history in the film is a hot mess. However, while few people go to the movies to learn ancient history, the appearance of another Hollywood sword-and-sandal epic may stimulate greater interest in the actual Roman rulers represented so inaccurately on the screen.
The brothers Caracalla and Geta-and their successor Macrinus-are major characters in the 2024 sequel. The extensive coinage of their reigns helps us to understand the dramatic events of the early third century.
To start, "Caracalla" was not his name. His troops gave him this nickname and it has stuck for almost 2,000 years. A caracallus was a colorful hooded cloak worn by the Celts of Gaul where Septimius Bassianus was born on April 4, 186 CE. Young Caracalla grew up among these people and adapted some of their customs (such as wearing a caracallus) while his father, the future emperor Septimius Severus, served there as the Imperial governor. Elite Romans could change their names as easily as they changed togas, and in homage to the revered late emperors Antoninus Pius (ruled 138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180), the young man was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus-names that would one day appear on his coins.
His younger brother Geta was born about a year later. From early childhood, the two boys hated one another (in the film, they are incorrectly described as twins).
In 193, Septimius Severus was the ultimate victor in a complex civil war that saw five rival emperors take power in a single year. On his coinage, Severus often depicted members of his family, including his highly educated and capable Syrian wife, Julia Domna, and his squabbling sons. On the reverse of a rare gold aureus issued about the year 200, the two boys face one another, with the hopeful inscription "Eternity of the Empire."
In December 195, after his father defeated the usurper Pescennius Niger, Caracalla, aged nine, was given the rank of Caesar, designating him an imperial successor. An extensive coinage in gold, silver, and bronze of Caracalla as Caesar bears his youthful portrait. A silver denarius from the mint of Laodicea in Syria also includes his title as Pontifex, high priest of the Roman state religion. The coin bears a standing figure of the goddess Minerva on the reverse with the inscription SECVRITAS PERPETVA ("Perpetual Security").
Valued at one-quarter of a denarius, the sestertius, a substantial brass coin of about 27 grams, was a mainstay of the Roman monetary system. Because small change was in chronic short supply, these coins often remained in circulation until they wore flat. As a result, well-preserved examples command a high premium from collectors. A very fine sestertius of Caracalla as Caesar, issued c. 196 CE, has a reverse depicting "priestly implements" of the Roman state religion. These include a jug for pouring offerings, a sacrificial knife, and the spiral wand called a lituus. The Latin inscription hails the "Dutiful Sons of Emperor Severus."
Born on May 27, 189, at Mediolanum (now Milan, Italy), Publius Septimius Geta was given the rank of Caesar at the age of nine. His boyish face appears on a superb gold aureus struck in 201. On the reverse, his parents appear side by side, unusual on Roman coins, indicating the high respect that emperor Severus had for his wife. Described as "three portraits of exquisite style perfectly struck and centred [sic] on a full flan," this rare coin brought over $154,000 in a recent Swiss auction.
By the age of 18, Geta had grown a beard (in Gladiator II, both Caracalla and Geta are inaccurately depicted as beardless). A very rare sestertius of Geta as Caesar struck at Rome around the year 208 features his bare-headed portrait. On the reverse, the two brothers are shown pouring offerings over an altar, emphasizing their priestly duties. The hopeful inscription is "Concord of the Emperors," but it was not to be.
At the age of 10, Caracalla was raised to the rank of Augustus (effectively co-emperor) in January 198 following the Roman capture of Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian Empire. On coins, his name now appears as ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, a potential source of confusion with coins of emperor Antoninus Pius, though the portraits of the two rulers are entirely different. An early denarius of Caracalla as Augustus bears a galley on the reverse, with the inscription "Arrival of the Emperor."
Geta was not promoted to Augustus until 209, something he bitterly resented.
On his deathbed, Septimius Severus gave his sons this advice:
Be on good terms with one other, be generous to the soldiers, and don't care about anything else (Hoover, 27).
The reverse of a denarius issued shortly before Geta's murder features Liberalitas, the Roman personification of generosity. Severus increased the annual pay of the legionaries from 300 denarii to 400, and the brothers soon raised it to 600. But the paternal admonition to get along with one another was ignored as soon as Severus died on February 4, 211. The palace was divided into two hostile armed camps and the brothers planned to divide the Empire between them. In December 211, Caracalla invited Geta to a reconciliation meeting on neutral ground - their mother's palace apartment. Caracalla's guards stabbed Geta to death, and he died in his horrified mother's arms. Caracalla issues an edict of damnatio memoriae and erased Geta's name and image from Imperial inscriptions and works, and his followers were rounded up and slaughtered. Nevertheless, the survival of so many of his coins indicates that this process was incomplete.
Romans were fanatical about chariot races held in the Circus Maximus, a stadium that could seat as many as 150,000 spectators. A brass sestertius of Caracalla dated to 213 depicts this facility in rich detail. This coin is #31 on Harlan J. Berk's list of the 100 Greatest Ancient Coins (Berk, 115).
Strapped for cash to pay his troops, Caracalla introduced a new denomination in 215 that was to have a disastrous impact on the Roman economy for the rest of the third century. The antoninianus was officially valued at two denarii but initially contained silver worth only about one-and-a-half. By collecting taxes in denarii and making payments in antoniniani, the Imperial treasury realized a profit. The temptation to debase the currency proved irresistible to subsequent rulers and the antoninianus eventually declined to a bronze coin with just a trace of silver on the surface. High-grade antoniniani of Caracalla are fairly scarce, perhaps because so many were melted down during the ruinous inflation of the century.
The mark of the denomination was the spiky radiate crown worn by the emperor. For empresses, the portrait is superimposed on a crescent.
Coins of Caracalla's last years show an increasingly thick neck and heavy beard. Inscriptions hail his victories over Britons and Germans. A denarius dated to c. 215-217 bears a reverse image of "Venus Victrix," the goddess of love depicted as a warrior.
Born about 187 in Rome, Fulvia Plautilla was the daughter of the powerful commander of the Praetorian guard. She married Caracalla in a lavish ceremony in April 202. It was not a happy marriage. In 205, after her father was executed for treason:
The proud and haughty young Plautilla was immediately divorced by Caracalla and banished to the remote Lipari islands ... Here she survived for another six years... The couple had never had any affection for one another and it is doubtful if the marriage was ever consummated... (Sear, 547)
Considering the short duration of the marriage, coinage in the name of Plautilla is surprisingly common - the CoinArchives Pro database lists 4,784 examples! A gold aureus bearing her portrait depicts the standing figures of the couple on the reverse with the hopeful inscription "Propagation of the Empire."
Born about 164 of Berber ancestry in North Africa, Macrinus rose to the high rank of Praetorian Prefect under Caracalla. Macrinus seized the throne after arranging the murder of Caracalla in Syria, where the emperor was preparing a campaign against the Parthians (in the film, Macrinus, played by Denzel Washington, stabs Caracalla to death in the Roman Colosseum's Imperial box).
When Caracalla dismounted from his horse to relieve himself, Martialis [a disgruntled officer, who had been passed over for promotion] approached him as if he wanted to tell him something, and then stabbed him with a small dagger. This was the only way that the expert martial-artist emperor could be killed by a suicidal coward. Martialis fled immediately, but was caught because he did not throw away his dagger. One of Caracalla's Scythian (i.e. Gothic) bodyguards, who was always in attendance with his beloved emperor, noted the bloody dagger and ran Martialis through with his spear (Syvänne, 270).
Caracalla's aunt, Julia Maesa, bribed the troops of the eastern legions to proclaim her 14-year-old grandson Elagabalus as emperor, using the rumor that the boy was actually Caracalla's son. Defeated in battle near Antioch on June 8, 218, Macrinus was captured and executed after a reign of about 14 months. Despite this brief tenure, his coin output was surprisingly great; one reference lists 18 types in gold, 52 in silver, 48 in brass, and 11 in copper (Sear, 578-592). A typical high-grade denarius auctioned for $542 in a recent European sale.
Born about 208, Marcus Opellius Diadumenianus was the son of Macrinus. Nothing is known about his mother except the name Nonia Celsa, and even this is uncertain. At the age of eight, Diadumenian received the title of Caesar. Shortly after, Macrinus promoted his son to Augustus (co-emperor). After Macrinus was killed, Diadumenian fled with a few trusted guards to seek sanctuary in the Parthian Empire but was intercepted and beheaded. He was 10 years old. Diadumenian's head was sent as a trophy to Elagabalus, who himself was only a few years older.
Coins of Diadumenian as Caesar are scarce, but those of his brief reign as Augustus (perhaps less than a month) are extremely rare. In a 2014 Swiss auction, a denarius - one of just four known - sold for over $38,000.
Coins of Caracalla's 19-year reign are fairly common in all metals. Geta was emperor for only about two-and-a-half years, so his coins are less common. Many were melted down after his murder. Coins of Macrinus' 14-month reign are scarce, but a few usually appear in major coin auctions.
The standard reference for these coins is volume 4 of The Roman Imperial Coinage ("RIC"), originally published in three parts in the 1930s and reissued as a single book in 1986. A more convenient reference that uses the RIC numbering system is Online Coins of the Roman Empire ("OCRE") maintained by the American Numismatic Society (ANS) in New York City.
[1] NAC Auction 143, May 7, 2024, Lot 553. Realized CHF 36,000 (about $39,792 USD; estimate CHF 25,000).
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescennius_Niger
[3] Leu Web Auction 31, September 7, 2024, Lot 1274. Realized CHF 420 (about $498 USD; estimate CHF 75).
[4] NAC Autumn Sale, September 30, 2024, Lot 983. Realized CHF 1,700 (about $2,015 USD; estimate CHF 250).
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lituus
[6] NAC Auction 146, May 8, 2024, Lot 2372. Realized CHF 140,000 (about $154,168 USD; estimate CHF 150,000).
[7] CNG E-auction 277, 11 April 2012, Lot 266. Realized $1,700 USD (estimate $300).
[8] NAC Auction 150, December 2, 2024, Lot 882. Realized CHF 550 (about $624 USD; estimate CHF 350).
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalitas. Many abstract nouns in Latin are grammatically feminine, and are therefore represented in art as female figures.
[15] Numismatic Fine Art, Auction 1, November 22, 2024, Lot 227. Realized CHF 480 (about $542 USD; estimate CHF 500).
[16] Numismatic Fine Art, Auction 1, November 22, 2024, Lot 230. Realized CHF 410 (about $463 USD; estimate CHF 500).
Mann, Charlotte. "The significance of the military representation of Caracalla upon the coinage of his sole reign (212 - 217 CE)", Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia 28 (2017)