AD 198-217 AR Denarius (2.99g, rv Mars advancing)

Caracalla and his younger brother Geta were the sons of Septimius Severus, the Pannonian general who emerged victorious from the chaotic Year of the Five Emperors in 193 and re-founded the Roman state on a frankly military footing. Severus famously criticised Marcus Aurelius for failing to remove his unfit son Commodus from the succession - and then proceeded, knowingly or not, to make exactly the same mistake.

In 198 Caracalla, the elder son, was elevated to co-emperor. Severus died in Britain in 211 and Geta was raised to equal rank. The brothers loathed each other; they physically partitioned the Imperial palace, reportedly walling off corridors, and each made attempts on the other's life. On 26 December 211 their mother Julia Domna brought them together for a private reconciliation. Caracalla's Praetorians stormed in and cut Geta down in his mother's arms. A damnatio memoriae followed - Geta's name and image chiselled out of inscriptions and coins across the Empire.

As sole emperor (211-217) Caracalla campaigned for years against the Alamanni in Germania, issued the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 granting Roman citizenship to every free male inhabitant of the Empire (a transformative act of imperial law), debased the silver coinage by introducing the antoninianus, and dramatically raised army pay - a combination that pushed the imperial finances into deep debt. He was murdered on 8 April 217 on campaign against Parthia: a Praetorian named Justin Martialis, denied promotion to centurion, killed him in the act of relieving himself by the road. Three days later the Praetorian Prefect Macrinus - widely suspected of arranging the murder - was acclaimed emperor by the army.

This denarius is from the militant phase of his reign. The obverse carries the laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Caracalla right with the legend ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM ("Antoninus Pius Augustus, Germanicus") - "Antoninus" being his official Severan name and "Germanicus" the title he claimed for his Alamannic campaigns. The reverse shows Mars advancing right, holding a transverse spear and a trophy over his shoulder, with the legend MARTI PROPVGNATORI - "to Mars the Defender" - one of the most ostentatiously martial reverse types of the entire Severan series.

NGC Ancients has graded this piece MS, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, with the further designation Fine Style - reserved for engraving of clearly superior portrait quality. The 2.99-gram silver flan is fully struck, the portrait is sharp through the laurel wreath, the cuirass detail is intact, and Mars's spear, trophy, and forward stride read crisply. This exact coin sold in Heritage Auctions in 2015 for USD 540.50.