Caracalla with Geta AE 37 – Caria Stratonicaea (Rare Damnatio Memoriae Example)

Bronze Roman Provincial Coin of Caracalla & Geta – Caria, Stratonicaea

Obv: ΜΑΡ ΑΤΩΝΙΝΟΝ ϹΕΥΗ; draped and cuirassed busts of Caracalla and Geta facing one another. Countermark: ΘEOY within rectangular incuse. Portrait of Geta erased as part of damnatio memoriae.

Rev: ΕΠΙ ΕΠΙΤΥΝΧΑΝΟΝΤΟϹ ΤΟΥ ΦΙΛΩΝΟϹ ϹΤΡΑΤΟΝΙΚΕΝ (sic); Hecate standing facing, looking left, wearing kalathos, holding patera and torch, lighted altar at her feet

211 – 217 AD. · Stratonicaea Mint · SNG von Aulock 2687-8

23.0g · 37mm

A rare physical example of Damnatio Memoriae, the Portrait of Geta has been erased, Caracalla’s damnatio memoriae of Geta applied after his murder in AD 211. Damnatio Memoriae was the Roman practice of erasing disgraced individuals from public memory by defacing images, inscriptions, and official records. It aimed not just to punish the dead, but to symbolically annihilate their legacy from history itself.