Antoninus Pius Denarius With A Strange Reverse

https://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.4.crl.54B

Actually looks to be Caracalla. 201 AD, Rome Mint, two captives seated next to trophy.

Denarii Safari,
. Very nice photos.
John1

Your coin was indeed issued by an emperor named Antoninus Pius, just not the one you were expecting. There were in fact three Roman emperors named "Antoninus Pius". The second is known to history as Caracalla. The third we call Elagabalus. All three are named 'Antoninus Pius' on the coins. For the most part, they can be distinguished by their portraits.

to the Community!

Caracalla was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus. In A.D. 195 Septimius Severus had himself posthumously adopted by Marcus Aurelius and was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus at the age of 7 as a part of his father's attempt to legitimise his reign. Caracalla was given the rank of Caesar at this point taking the rank away from Clodius Albinus who had previously been given the rank by Septimius Severus. This act led to Albinus rebelling and declaring himself Augustus but that is another, short lived story. Caracalla was appointed as joint Augustus with his father in A.D. 198.

We don't know that he was really referred to as Caracalla, which was a Gallic hooded tunic that he wore and apparently made fashionable, as we rely on information from later historians. I seem to recall that one claims be was referred to as Tarautas, who was a violent gladiator of the day..

Here are some representative examples of some of their portraits for stylistic comparison.

Antoninus Pius is quite distinctive:-
This is one of his earliest portraits dating to February 25th to July 10th A.D. 138 when he was Caesar under Hadrian and aged 51.



A fairly typical portrait - This one dating to A.D. 153 where he is aged about 66.



And a Posthumus example dating to A.D. 161 after his death aged 74



For Caracalla we can see a wide range of portraits all the way from his boyhood through to manhood.

Here he is about 8 in A.D. 196 and titled Caesar



In A.D. 198 he is raised to joint Augustus



A.D. 207



A.D. 211



A.D. 217

We could have simply called them Antoninus Pius I, Antoninus Pius II and Antoninus Pius III, but instead, historians, since ancient times, have called II and III by their nicknames. Perhaps because both Caracalla and Elagabalus were considered "bad emperors", and the historians felt they were unworthy of being allowed the historical association of sharing a name with the original Antoninus Pius, universally regarded as a "good emperor".

Cassius Dio, a Roman historian who wrote his history of Rome just after Elagabalus died, refers to Caracalla as "Antoninus", but Elagabalus as "Sardanapalus", a pseudonym; the original "Sardanapalus" was the Roman name for the semi-mythical "last Assyrian emperor", whose decadent corruption destroyed his country.


There are some scarce coins where El-Gabal is named, though it seems to be honouring the deity itself rather than assigning a name or title to the emperor. For example, there's a gold aureus on his Wikipedia page, depicting on the reverse the god-rock driving a chariot, naming it "SANCT DEO SOLI ELAGABAL".