Caracalla, 198-217. Denarius (Silver, 21 mm, 3.51 g, 6 h), Rome, 206-207. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG Laureate head of Caracalla to right. Rev. IOVI / SOSPITATORI Jupiter-Serapis, wearing polos, standing facing in tetrastyle shrine, extending his right hand downwards and holding long scepter in his left. BMC 507. Cohen 108. RIC 156. Rare. Lightly toned. Struck from slightly worn dies and with a thin flan crack, otherwise, very fine.


IOVI SOSPITATORI literally means 'Dedicated to Jupiter the Saviour/Protector.' This 'saving' Jupiter - iconographically blended with Serapis - appears only once in Roman coinage, in 206/7, on this issue struck for both Septimius Severus and Caracalla. Exactly what the type was meant to allude to is uncertain, but the most likely context is the fall of the praetorian prefect Gaius Fulvius Plautianus the year before (205). Plautianus was one of the emperor’s closest associates and, like him, came from Leptis Magna in Africa. His daughter Plautilla married the prince Caracalla in 202, but Caracalla loathed his wife and, in the winter of 204/5, manoeuvred to have her father denounced to the emperor; Plautianus was subsequently executed. The sudden removal of the emperor’s most trusted confidant may have been spun positively in this coinage - presented to the public as Jupiter’s deliverance of the imperial family from a conspiracy.