CARACALLA 198AD Dionysus on CISTA MYSTICA Magnesia ad Maendrum Roman Coin i46648

Item: i46648

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Caracalla
–
Roman Emperor
: 198-217 A.D. –

Bronze 16mm (2.52 grams) of Magnesia ad Maeandrum
Reference: SNG Munchen 627
AVP ANTΩNЄINOC, Laureate head right.
MAΓNHTΩN, Infant
Dionysus

seated right on serpent-entwined cista mystica.

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In the
Mystery cult
, a cista mystica (literally
“sacred chest”) is a basket or chest used to house snakes. Cistae mysticae were
used in the initiation ceremony of the cult of Bacchus, or
Dionysus,
as well as an early
gnostic
sect called the
Ophites.
Cistae mysticae appear on ancient Roman and Greek coins.

A cista (kiste) in the classical world was generally a casket, used
for example to hold unguents or jewels. More specifically, in the
Mystery cult
, a cista mystica (literally
“sacred chest”) is a basket or chest used to house snakes. Cistae mystica were
used in the initiation ceremony of the cult of Bacchus or
Dionysus
, as well as an early
gnostic
sect called the
Ophites
. Cistae mysticae appear on ancient
Roman and Greek coins.

Furthermore small Cistas were worked in Etruria, contained in cylindrical
bronze containers for domestic use and storage of toiletries. Their faces were
usually adorned engraved with figures, soldered on the top small bronze figures.

The Cista could be realised with different materials like wicker, wood,
rawhide, but above of all in metal, used from the 5th century. The Etruscans
manufactured it in different qualities from the 5th century, at first in ovoid
form with thrown scenes, and then in cylindrical form with engraved scenes. The
handle of the lid was consisted by little structures. One of the most important
city of production of Cista is Preneste, an old city of Lazio, which realised
different types of Cista from the 4th century.

Dionysus
is the god of the
grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and
religious ecstasy in
Greek mythology
. Alcohol, especially

wine, played an important role in Greek


culture
with Dionysus being an important reason for this life style. His name, thought
to be a theonym
in
Linear B
tablets as di-wo-nu-so (KH
Gq 5 inscription), shows that he may have been worshipped as early as c.
1500–1100 BC by
Mycenean Greeks
; other traces of the
Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient
Minoan Crete
. His origins are uncertain, and
his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian,
others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic
foreigner; in others, from
Ethiopia
in the South. He is a god of
epiphany
, “the god that comes”, and his
“foreignness” as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his
cults. He is a major, popular figure of
Greek mythology
and
religion
, and is included in some lists of the
twelve Olympians
. Dionysus was the last god to
be accepted into Mt. Olympus. He was the youngest and the only one to have a
mortal mother. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of
Greek theatre
. He is an example of a
dying god
.

The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed.
He holds a fennel
staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known
as a thyrsus
. Later images show him as a
beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature
describes him as womanly or “man-womanish”. In its fully developed form, his
central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if
from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession
(thiasus)
is made up of wild female followers (maenads)
and bearded
satyrs
with
erect penises
. Some are armed with the
thyrsus, some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot,
usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a
bearded, drunken Silenus
. This procession is presumed to be the
cult model for the human followers of his
Dionysian Mysteries
. In his
Thracian
mysteries, he wears the bassaris
or
fox-skin, symbolizing a new life. Dionysus is represented by city
religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society
and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected,
everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the
unforeseeable action of the gods.

Also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the
Romans
and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia.
His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a
beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose
his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is also called Eleutherios
(“the liberator”), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from
self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the
powerful. Those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the
god himself. His cult is also a “cult of the souls”; his maenads feed the dead
through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living
and the dead.

In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of

Zeus and the mortal
Semele
, thus semi-divine or

heroic: and as son of Zeus and
Persephone
or
Demeter
, thus both fully divine, part-chthonic
and possibly identical with
Iacchus
of the
Eleusinian Mysteries
. Some scholars believe
that Dionysus is a
syncretism
of a local Greek nature deity and a
more powerful god from
Thrace
or
Phrygia
such as
Sabazios
or
Zalmoxis
.

Caracalla 198-217 A.D.

Caesar:
195-198 A.D. (under <=”” font=”” color=”#000000″ face=”Times New Roman”>
Septimius Severus
)
Augustus: 198-217 A.D. (198-209 A.D. with
<=”” font=”” color=”#000000″ face=”Times New Roman”>
Septimius Severus
) (209-211 A.D. with
<=”” font=”” color=”#000000″ face=”Times New Roman”>
Septimius Severus
and

Geta
) (211 A.D. with

Geta
) (211-217 A.D. Sole Reign)

Son of <=”” font=”” color=”#000000″ face=”Times New Roman”>
Septimius Severus
and
<=”” font=”” color=”#000000″ face=”Times New Roman”>
Julia Domna
| Brother of

Geta
| Husband of
<=”” font=”” color=”#000000″>
Plautilla
| Nephew of
<=”” font=”” color=”#000000″>
Julia Maesa
| Cousin of
<=”” font=”” color=”#000000″ face=”Times New Roman”>
Julia Soaemias
and
<=”” font=”” color=”#000000″ face=”Times New Roman”>
Julia Mamaea
|

Caracalla (Latin:
Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus;4
April 188 – 8 April 217) was
Roman emperor
from 198 to 217 The eldest son of
Septimius Severus
, for a short time he ruled
jointly with his younger brother
Geta
until he had him murdered in 211.
Caracalla is remembered as one of the most notorious and unpleasant of emperors
because of the massacres and persecutions he authorized and instigated
throughout the Empire.

Caracalla’s reign was also notable for the
Constitutio Antoniniana
(also called the
Edict of Caracalla), granting

Roman citizenship
to all freemen throughout the
Roman Empire
, which according to historian
Cassius Dio
, was done for the purposes of
raising tax revenue. He is also one of the emperors who commissioned a large
public bath-house (thermae)
in Rome. The remains of the
Baths of Caracalla
are still one of the major
tourist attractions of the Italian capital.

Early life

Caracalla, of mixed
Punic
–Roman
and Syrian
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 create a connection
to the family of the philosopher emperor
Marcus Aurelius
. He was later given the
Caracallanickname
,
which referred to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore and which he made
fashionable.

Reign (211)

Murder of brother
(211)

His father died in 211 at
Eboracum
(now

York) while on campaign in northern Britain. Caracalla was present
and was then proclaimed emperor by the troops along with his brother
Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta
. Caracalla
suspended the
campaign in Caledonia
and soon ended all
military activity, as both brothers wanted to be sole ruler thus making
relations between them increasingly hostile. When they tried to rule the Empire
jointly they actually considered dividing it in halves, but were persuaded not
to do so by their mother.

Then in December 211 at a reconciliation meeting arranged by their mother
Julia, Caracalla had Geta assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal
to himself, Geta dying in his mother’s arms. Caracalla then persecuted and
executed most of Geta’s supporters and ordered a
damnatio memoriae
pronounced by the Senate
against his brother’s memory.

Geta’s image was simply removed from all coinage, paintings and statues,
leaving a blank space next to Caracalla’s. Among those executed were his former
cousin-wife
Fulvia Plautilla
, his unnamed daughter with
Plautilla along with her brother and other members of the family of his former
father-in-law
Gaius Fulvius Plautianus
. Plautianus had
already been executed for alleged treachery against emperor Severus in 205.

About the time of his accession he ordered the
Roman currency
devalued, the silver purity of
the denarius
was decreased from 56.5% to 51.5%, the
actual silver weight dropping from 1.81 grams to 1.66 grams – though the overall
weight slightly increased. In 215 he introduced the
antoninianus
, a “double denarius” weighing
5.1 grams and containing 2.6 grams of silver – a purity of 52%.

In the Roman provinces

In 213, Caracalla went north to the German frontier to deal with the
Alamanni
tribesmen who were raiding in the
Agri Decumates
. The Romans did defeat the
Alamanni in battle near the river
Main
, but failed to win a decisive victory over
them. After a peace agreement was brokered and a large bribe payment given to
the invaders, the Senate conferred upon him the empty title of Germanicus
Maximus. He also acquired the surname Alemannicus at this time. The
following year the tyrant traveled to the East, to Syria and Egypt never to
return to Rome.

Gibbon
in his work describes Caracalla as “the
common enemy of mankind”. He left the capital in 213, about a year after the
murder of Geta, and spent the rest of his reign in the provinces, particularly
those of the East. He kept the Senate and other wealthy families in check by
forcing them to construct, at their own expense, palaces, theaters, and places
of entertainment throughout the periphery. New and heavy taxes were levied
against the bulk of the population, with additional fees and confiscations
targeted at the wealthiest families.

When the inhabitants of
Alexandria
heard Caracalla’s claims that he had
killed Geta in self-defense, they produced a satire mocking this as well as
Caracalla’s other pretensions. In 215, Caracalla savagely responded to this
insult 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.^{[citation
needed]}

Domestic Roman policy

Affiliation with
the army

During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised the annual pay of an average
legionary to 675
denarii
and lavished many benefits on the
army which he both feared and admired, as instructed by his father Septimius
Severus who had told him on his deathbed to always mind the soldiers and ignore
everyone else. Caracalla did manage to win the trust of the military 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.

With the soldiers, “He forgot even the proper dignity of his rank,
encouraging their insolent familiarity,” according to Gibbon. “The vigour of the
army, instead of being confirmed by the severe discipline of the camps, melted
away in the luxury of the cities.”

His official portraiture marks 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. This rugged
soldier–emperor iconic archetype was adopted by most of the following emperors
who depended on the support of the troops to rule, like his eventual successor
Maximinus Thrax
.

Seeking to secure his own legacy, Caracalla also commissioned one of Rome’s
last major architectural achievements, the
Baths of Caracalla
, the 2nd largest public
baths 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 libraries, private rooms and outdoor tracks. Internally it was
lavishly decorated with gold-trimmed marble floors, columns, mosaics and
colossal statuary.

Edict of
Caracalla (212)

The
Constitutio Antoniniana
(Latin: “Constitution
[or Edict] of Antoninus”) (also called Edict of Caracalla) was an edict
issued in 212 by Caracalla which declared that all free men in the Roman Empire
were to be given full Roman citizenship and all free women in the Empire were
given the same rights as Roman women.

Before 212, for the most part only inhabitants of Italia held full Roman
citizenship. Colonies of Romans established in other provinces, Romans (or their
descendants) living in provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout
the Empire, and small numbers of local nobles (such as kings of client
countries) held full citizenship also. Provincials, on the other hand, were
usually non-citizens, although many held the
Latin Right
.

The Roman Historian
Cassius Dio
contended that the sole motivation
for the edict was a desire to increase state revenue.At the time aliens did not
have to pay most taxes that were required of citizens, so although nominally
Caracalla was elevating their legal status, he was more importantly expanding
the Roman tax base. The effect of this was to remove the distinction that
citizenship had held since the foundation of Rome and as such the act had a
profound effect upon the fabric of Roman society.

War with Parthia

According to the historian Herodian, in 216, Caracalla tricked the Parthians
into believing that he accepted a marriage and peace proposal, but then had the
bride and guests slaughtered after the wedding celebrations. The thereafter
ongoing conflict and skirmishes became known as the
Parthian war of Caracalla
.

Assassination (217)

The Roman Empire during the reign of Caracalla.

While travelling from
Edessa
to continue the war with
Parthia
, he was assassinated while urinating at
a roadside near
Carrhae
on 8 April 217 (4 days after his 29th
birthday), by Julius Martialis, an officer of his personal 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 then ran forward and killed Caracalla with a single sword
stroke. While attempting to flee, the bold assassin was then quickly dispatched
by a Scythian archer of the Imperial Guard.

Caracalla was succeeded by his
Praetorian Guard Prefect
,
Macrinus
, who (according to Herodian) was most
probably responsible for having the emperor assassinated.

His nickname

According to
Aurelius Victor
in his Epitome de Caesaribus,
the agnomen
“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
Historia Augusta
agree that his nickname
was derived from his cloak, but do not mention its country of origin.

Legendary king of
Britain

Geoffrey of Monmouth
‘s legendary
History of the Kings of Britain
makes
Caracalla a king of Britain, referring to him by his actual name “Bassianus”,
rather than the nickname Caracalla. In the story, 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 historically much later
Menapian
Gaul that he actually was.