Aureus (Coin) Portraying Emperor Caracalla (204 (January-April), issued by Septimius Severus): Artwork and History

Aureus (Coin) Portraying Emperor Caracalla (204 (January-April), issued by Septimius Severus) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Roman, minted in Rome.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front (obverse) of this coin portrays the profile head of Emperor Caracalla facing right, laureate, and wearing a cuirass(body armor) and paludamentum (military cloak). The back (reverse) shows the deity Victory, partly draped, advancing left, and holding a wreath and palm. This coin showing the 16 year old prince was issued by his father, Emperor Septimius Severus. The inscription details the honor (Pontifex - "priest") and powers (Tribunitian) that the emperor had granted to his son six years earlier. The reverse image shows a winged Victory offering a wreath and palm frond to celebrate the emperor's "Great Parthian Victory", spelled out in the inscription.

Object facts

• Title: Aureus (Coin) Portraying Emperor Caracalla
• Date: 204 (January-April), issued by Septimius Severus
• Artist attribution: Roman, minted in Rome
• Place of origin: Rome
• Medium: Gold
• Dimensions: Diam.: 2.1 cm (7/8 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1922.4884

Collection credit

Gift of Martin A. Ryerson

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.