Geta

8/30/2011                                                                                    link back up to main Chapter 262 Coins

sacrificial tripod

While searching for a Commodus I obtained couple of uncleaned undetermined Roman coins from an old guy with failing eyesight. I was able to decipher this one as the Roman Provincial Emperor Geta 209-211AD coin showing the unusual but historic Greek sacrificial tripod with the serpent spiraling up the middle leg. Coin was minted in Nicopolis, Greece during their Roman Empire control as a province.  The hauntingly seductive image of the Priestess of Delphi sits on the sacred tripod altar in the painting. In mythology she was the mystic oracle (sometimes shape shifted into a serpent) who sat over the crack in the earth and gave prophecies which helped Apollo slay Python. Another serpent tripod trophy was created to honor the Greeks defeat of Xerxes and the Persian Empire at the Battle of Platea 479BC. This serpentine column has the longest literary history of any object surviving from Greek and Roman antiquity. Many sporting trophies today use this Greek tripod leg theme. Ref coin Mushmov 3244

 Sadly for Geta, there was a lot of sibling rivalry with his co-Emperor brother Caracalla. Geta had been invited by him to dinner at their mother's house where Caracalla had him murdered and died in his mothers arms. Things were rough in those days.

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