CARACALLA Serdica in Thrace Ancient Roman Coin Tyche Fortuna Luck Cult i48221

Item: i48221

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Caracalla
–
Roman Emperor
: 198-217 A.D. –
Bronze 30mm (16.14 grams) of
Serdica
in
Thrace

Laureate head right.
OVΛΠIAC CEPΔIKHC,

Tyche standing left, holding patera over lit altar and cornucopia.  

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.

The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae) or horn of plenty
is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container
overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form.
Originating in
classical antiquity
, it has continued as a
symbol in
Western art
, and it is particularly associated
with the
Thanksgiving
holiday in
North America
.

Allegorical
depiction of the Roman
goddess
Abundantia
with a cornucopia, by
Rubens
(ca. 1630)

In Mythology

Mythology
offers multiple
explanations of the origin
of the cornucopia.
One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant

Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father
Cronus
. In a cave on
Mount Ida
on the island of
Crete
, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by
a number of divine attendants, including the goat
Amalthea
(“Nourishing Goddess”), who fed him
with her milk. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and
strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her
horns
, which then had the divine power to
provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the god.

In another myth, the cornucopia was created when
Heracles
(Roman
Hercules
) wrestled with the river god
Achelous
and wrenched off one of his horns;
river gods were sometimes depicted as horned. This version is represented in the

Achelous and Hercules

mural painting
by the
American Regionalist
artist
Thomas Hart Benton
.

The cornucopia became the attribute of several
Greek
and
Roman deities
, particularly those associated
with the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as personifications
of Earth (Gaia
or
Terra
); the child
Plutus
, god of riches and son of the grain
goddess Demeter
; the
nymph

Maia
; and
Fortuna
, the goddess of luck, who had the power
to grant prosperity. In
Roman Imperial cult
, abstract Roman deities who
fostered peace (pax
Romana) and prosperity were also depicted with a cornucopia,
including Abundantia
, “Abundance” personified, and
Annona
, goddess of the
grain supply to the city of Rome
.
Pluto
, the classical ruler of the underworld in
the
mystery religions
, was a giver of agricultural,
mineral and spiritual wealth, and in art often holds a cornucopia to distinguish
him from the gloomier Hades
, who holds a
drinking horn
instead.

Modern depictions

In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped
wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive
fruit
and
vegetables
. In North America, the cornucopia
has come to be associated with
Thanksgiving
and the harvest. Cornucopia is
also the name of the annual November Wine and Food celebration in
Whistler
, British Columbia, Canada. Two
cornucopias are seen in the
flag
and
state seal
of
Idaho
. The Great
Seal
of
North Carolina
depicts Liberty standing and
Plenty holding a cornucopia. The coat of arms of
Colombia
,
Panama
,

Peru and
Venezuela
, and the Coat of Arms of the State of
Victoria, Australia
, also feature the
cornucopia, symbolising prosperity.

The horn of plenty is used on body art and at Halloween, as it is a symbol of
fertility, fortune and abundance.

• 
  

  Base of a statue of
  Louis XV of France

Tyche (Greek for luck; the Roman equivalent was
Fortuna
) was the presiding
tutelary deity
that governed the fortune and
prosperity of a city, its destiny. Increasingly during the Hellenistic period,
cities had their own specific iconic version of Tyche, wearing a
mural crown
(a crown like the walls of the
city).

The
Greek historian Polybius
believed that when no cause can be
discovered to events such as floods, droughts, frosts or even in politics, then
the cause of these events may be fairly attributed to Tyche.

Stylianos Spyridakis  concisely expressed Tyche’s appeal in a Hellenistic
world of arbitrary violence and unmeaning reverses: “In the turbulent years of
the Epigoni of Alexander
, an awareness of the
instability of human affairs led people to believe that Tyche, the blind
mistress of Fortune, governed mankind with an inconstancy which explained the
vicissitudes of the time.”

In literature, she might be given various genealogies, as a daughter of
Hermes
and
Aphrodite
, or considered as one of the
Oceanids
, daughters of
Oceanus
and
Tethys
, or of

Zeus. She was connected with
Nemesis
and
Agathos Daimon
(“good spirit”).

She was uniquely venerated at
Itanos
in Crete, as Tyche Protogeneia,
linked with the Athenian
Protogeneia
(“firstborn”), daughter of
Erechtheus
, whose self-sacrifice saved the
city.

She had temples at
Caesarea Maritima
,
Antioch
,
Alexandria
and
Constantinople
. In
Alexandria
the Tychaeon, the temple of
Tyche, was described by
Libanius
as one of the most magnificent of the
entire Hellenistic world.

Tyche appears on many
coins
of the Hellenistic period in the three
centuries before the Christian era, especially from cities in the Aegean.
Unpredictable turns of fortune drive the complicated plotlines of
Hellenistic romances
, such as
Leucippe and Clitophon
or
Daphnis and Chloe
. She experienced a
resurgence in another era of uneasy change, the final days of publicly
sanctioned
Paganism
, between the late-fourth-century
emperors
Julian
and
Theodosius I
who definitively closed the
temples. The effectiveness of her capricious power even achieved respectability
in philosophical circles during that generation, though among poets it was a
commonplace to revile her for a fickle harlot.

In medieval art
, she was depicted as carrying a
cornucopia
, an
emblematic
ship’s rudder, and the
wheel of fortune
, or she may stand on the
wheel, presiding over the entire circle of fate.

The constellation of
Virgo
is sometimes identified as the heavenly
figure of Tyche, as well as other goddesses such as
Demeter
and
Astraea
.

The history of Sofia
,
Bulgaria
‘s capital and largest city, spans
thousands of years from
Antiquity
to modern times, during which the
city has been a commercial, industrial, cultural and economic centre in its
region and the Balkans
.

Sofia was originally a
Thracian
settlement called Serdica or
Sardica (Greek: Σερδική, Σαρδική), named after the
Celtic
tribe
Serdi
that had populated it.For a short period
during the 4th century BC, the city was possessed by
Philip of Macedon
and his son
Alexander the Great
.

Around BC 29, Sofia was conquered by the
Romans
and renamed Ulpia Serdica. It
became a municipium, or centre of an administrative region, during the
reign of Emperor Trajan
(98-117). The city expanded, as
turrets
, protective walls, public baths,
administrative and cult buildings, a civic
basilica
and a large
amphitheatre
called Bouleutherion, were built.
When Emperor
Diocletian
divided the province of
Dacia
into Dacia Ripensis (on the banks of the
Danube
) and Dacia Mediterranea, Serdica became
the capital of Dacia Mediterranea. The city subsequently expanded for a century
and a half, which caused
Constantine the Great
to call it “my Rome”. In
343 A.D. , the
Council of Sardica
was held in the city, in a
church located where the current 6th century
Church of Saint Sofia
was later built.

Serdica was of moderate size, but magnificent as an urban concept of planning
and architecture, with abundant amusements and an active social life. It
flourished during the reign of
Byzantine Emperor

Justinian I
, when it was surrounded with great
fortress walls whose remnants can still be seen today.

The city was destroyed by the

Huns in 447 but was rebuilt by
Byzantine Emperor

Justinian
and renamed Triaditsa.
Although also often destroyed by the Slavs, the town remained under Byzantine
dominion until 809.

Antoninus (Called ‘Caracalla’)

Caesar:
195-198 A.D.
Augustus: 198-217 A.D.
( 198-209 A.D. – with Septimius Severus)
( 209-211 A.D. – with Septimius Severus and Geta)
( 211-217 A.D. – Sole Reign)

Caracalla (April
4, 188

–

April 8
,

217.
Caracallus ), born Lucius Septimius Bassianus and later called Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, was the
eldest son of

Septimius Severus

and

Roman Emperor
from 211 to 217. He was one of
the most nefarious of Roman emperors. Caracalla’s reign was notable for:

• the

  Constitutio Antoniniana

  , granting

  Roman citizenship

  to freemen throughout the

  Roman Empire

  , according to

  Cassius Dio

  in order to increase taxation;

• debasing the silver content in Roman coinage by 25 percent in
  order to pay the legions; and

• the construction of a large

  thermae

  outside Rome, the remains of which, known as the

  Baths of Caracalla

  , can still be seen today

   

“Caracalla was the common enemy of all mankind,” wrote

Edward Gibbon

. He spent his reign traveling
from province to province so that each could experience his “rapine and
cruelty.”

Caracalla’s real name was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He got the
nickname from his habit of wearing a cloak by the same name. Caracalla was the
elder son of Septimius Severus and brother of Geta whom he positively hated.
Hated so much, in fact, that he had him murdered a few years later. In the
mayhem that followed, Caracalla’s men went on a killing spree of anyone
suspected of being a Geta sympathizer. In the massacre, it’s estimated up to
20,000 people lost their lives. Caracalla would go on to rule for another five
years but his bad karma caught up with him and he was assassinated in a plot
perpetrated by Macrinus.

As an emperor Caracalla possessed few redeeming qualities and among the worst
of them would be his ruinous drain on the treasury. Because he knew everyone
hated him he sought the protection of the army. And the surest way of getting
this protection was to buy it outright. He raised the pay of the solider to
about four denarii per day, nearly quadrupling the salary of just a few years
prior. And on top of their regular salary he heaped endless bonuses and other
concessions meant to endear them. This money could only have come by the
oppressive taxation of ordinary citizens as well as the seizures of property of
the wealthy under trumped-up charges. This not only intensified the hatred
against him but also had the effect of corrupting the military who had become
accustomed to this life of luxury and throwing the economy into lasting
disarray.

Rise to power

Caracalla, of mixed

Punic

/Berber

and Syrian

Arab

descent, was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus in

Lugdunum
,

Gaul (now

Lyon,

France
), the
son of the later Emperor Septimius Severus and

Julia
Domna
. At the age of seven, his name was changed to Marcus Aurelius
Septimius Bassianus Antoninus to solidify connection to the family of

Marcus Aurelius

. He was later given the

Caracalla nickname
, which referred to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore
and which he made fashionable.

His father, who had taken the imperial throne in 193, died in
211 while touring the northern marches at

Eboracum
(York),
and Caracalla was proclaimed co-emperor with his brother

Publius Septimius Antoninius Geta

. However since both of them wanted to be
the sole ruler, tensions between the brothers were evident in the few months
they ruled the empire together (they even considered dividing the empire in two,
but were persuaded not to do so by their mother). In December 211, Caracalla had
Geta, the family of his former father-in-law

Gaius Fulvius Plautianus

, his wife

Fulvia Plautilla

(also his paternal second cousin), and her brother
assassinated. He persecuted Geta’s supporters and ordered a

by the Senate against his brother.

Reign

In 213 Caracalla went north to the German frontier to deal
with the

Alamanni

who were causing trouble in the

Agri Decumates

. The emperor managed to win the sympathy of the soldiers with
generous pay rises and popular gestures, like marching on foot among the
ordinary soldiers, eating the same food, and even grinding his own flour with
them.

Caracalla defeated the Alamanni in a battle near the river

Main, but failed to
win a decisive victory over them. After a peace agreement was brokered, the
senate conferred upon him the title “Germanicus Maximus”. In the next year the
emperor traveled to the East.

When the inhabitants of

Alexandria

heard Caracalla’s claims that he had killed Geta in self-defense,
they produced a satire mocking this claim, as well as Caracalla’s other
pretensions. Caracalla responded to this insult savagely in 215 by slaughtering
the deputation of leading citizens who had unsuspectingly assembled before the
city to greet his arrival, and then unleashed his troops for several days of
looting and plunder in Alexandria. According to historian Cassius Dio, over
20,000 people were killed.

During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised the annual pay
of an average legionary to 675

and lavished many benefits on the army which he both feared and
admired, as instructed by his father Septimius Severus who had told him to
always mind the soldiers and ignore everyone else. His official portraiture
marked a break with the detached images of the philosopher-emperors who preceded
him: his close-cropped haircut is that of a soldier, his pugnacious scowl a
realistic and threatening presence. The rugged soldier-emperor iconic type was
adopted by several of the following emperors who depended on the support of the
legions, like

Trebonianus Gallus

.^[11]

Seeking to secure his own legacy, Caracalla also commissioned
one of Rome’s last major architectural achievements, the

Baths of Caracalla

, the largest public bath ever built in ancient Rome. The
main room of the baths was larger than

St. Peter’s Basilica

, and could easily accommodate over 2,000 Roman citizens
at one time. The bath house opened in 216, complete with private rooms and
outdoor tracks. Internally it was decorated with golden trim and mosaics.

Fall

While travelling from

Edessa

to begin a war with

Parthia
, he
was assassinated while urinating at a roadside near

Harran
on

April 8
,

217 by Julius
Martialis, an officer in the imperial bodyguard.

Herodian

says that Martialis’ brother had been executed a few days earlier by Caracalla
on an unproven charge; Cassius Dio, on the other hand, says that Martialis was
resentful at not being promoted to the rank of centurion. The escort of the
emperor gave him privacy to relieve himself, and Martialis ran forward and
killed Caracalla with a single sword stroke. He immediately fled on horseback,
but was killed by a bodyguard archer.^{[
neededcitation]}

Caracalla was succeeded by the Praetorian Prefect of the
Guard,

Macrinus
,
who almost certainly was part of the conspiracy against the emperor.

His nickname

According to

Aurelius Victor

in his Epitome de Caesaribus, the

cognomen

“Caracalla” refers to a Gallic cloak

that Caracalla adopted as a personal fashion, which spread to his army
and his court.

Cassius Dio

and the

^[14]

agree that his nickname derived from his cloak, but do not mention its country
of origin.

Legendary king of Britain

Geoffrey of Monmouth

‘s legendary

makes Caracalla a king of Britain,
referring to him by his actual name “Bassianus”, rather than the nickname
Caracalla. After Severus’s death, the Romans wanted to make Geta king of
Britain, but the Britons preferred Bassianus because he had a British mother.
The two brothers fought a battle in which Geta was killed, and Bassianus
succeeded to the throne. He ruled until he was betrayed by his

Pictish
allies
and overthrown by

Carausius
,
who, according to Geoffrey, was a Briton, rather than the

Menapian
Gaul
that he actually was.