Caracalla augustus, 198 – 217. Aureus 217, AV 21 mm, 6.33 g. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM Laureate and cuirassed bust r. Rev. P M TR P XX COS IIII P P Victory, draped at waist, seated r. on cuirass and shield, supporting shield with l. hand and l. knee and inscribing VOT/ XX on it in two lines with stylus held in r. hand; in r. field, trophy, composed of helmet, two shields, cuirass, and greaves, flanked by two captives seated at base, both with arms crossed. In exergue, VIC PART. C 649. BMC 197 note. RIC 297b. Calicó 2837. Of the highest rarity, possibly the second specimen known. A superb and unusual portrait of fine style and an interesting reverse type. Minor marks, otherwise about extremely fineGraded Ch XF, Strike: 5/5, Surface: 3/5 – brushed, NGC photo certificate number 8567762-003 Ex Triton sale XXVII, 2024, 823. In AD 216, Caracalla embarked on a great campaign against the Parthian Empire, which he envisioned as a war of conquest to bring him glory as a Roman version of Alexander the Great. As Alexander and his Macedonian army had overthrown the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire, Caracalla and his Roman legions would overthrow the empire of the Parthians, the latter-day heirs of the Persians. After assembling the army at Nicomedia in AD 215, he spent the remainder of the year in preparation, which included the training of Roman military units based on the Macedonian phalanx, and finding an appropriate excuse to go to war. His original pretext had been that the Parthian king, Vologases VI (AD 208-213), had refused to release hostages as promised, but when his successor, Artabanus V (AD 213-224), unexpectedly set them free, he was forced to find another casus belli. Caracalla then attempted to arrange a marriage between himself and the daughter of Artabanus V, but this became the opening of the war, either because the Parthian king refused or because the emperor used the occasion of the wedding banquet to massacre the Parthian elite and launch his military operations. Once the campaign had begun, Caracalla and his army spent most of their time sacking fortresses and committing atrocities in Mesopotamia and the Parthian client-kingdom of Adiabene. The main Parthian army waited in the mountains beyond the Tigris River while they prepared a counterattack to drive out the Romans. Despite never meeting the Parthians in a pitched battle, Caracalla wrote to the senate that he had defeated them. In celebration, the emperor was awarded the honorific title Parthicus Maximus, and his “great victory” was advertised on coins like this gold aureus. Here, Caracalla is depicted on the obverse wearing a cuirass intended to characterize him as a new Alexander, while the exergue legend on the reverse proclaims the Parthian victory (VICT PART), indicating the source of the trophy arms and the captives seated below. The figure of Victory inscribing a shield with VOT XX, indicates that coins like this aureus were produced for distribution at the Roman New Year in January 217, when Caracalla celebrated his twentieth year as emperor. While the emperor’s celebratory coins were being distributed in Rome, Caracalla and his army were wintering at Edessa, still without facing the Parthians in battle. When spring came, the enemy had still not appeared. The emperor marched with his army to Carrhae, where he intended to worship at the city’s famous shrine of the Mesopotamian moon god, Sin, and pray for divine support in the ongoing war. On 8 April 217, before reaching Carrhae, Caracalla dismounted to urinate by the roadside. While the emperor was indisposed, he was suddenly struck down by Julius Martialis, a bodyguard who had nursed resentment against Caracalla for passing him over for promotion. So ended the life of the would-be Roman Alexander and Parthicus Maximus, without ever directly facing the pseudo-Persian Parthians he was supposed to have conquered. Please find here the video of the coin