Hello...
I have a question that I have been looking for an answer for a long time, but have not found one until today. It is about the first name change of the
Geta.
On March 7, 189
Geta was born Publius Septimius
Geta - after
his paternal grandfather. On the first city
Roman and
provincial coinage also appears "Publius" as a first name in the
legend inscriptions. So far, so
good.
Then
Geta receives (temporarily) another first name with "
Lucius". Here the question arises whether this referred to
Lucius Verus or to
Lucius Aurelius Commodus. Either way -
Lucius then appears as an official name on the inscriptions between 198-200 AD to my knowledge.
All of a sudden, however, from about 200/202 AD, "Publius" appears again as the first name on the city
Roman coinage. After these years no coin is used in
Rome with "
Lucius" as name any more! Since the stamp cutters were certainly not allowed to decide this alone - this instruction came from the highest authority. So from the imperial house. But what
had happened?
Publius Septimius
Geta became
Lucius Septimius
Geta became Publius Septimius
Geta. But why?
The first renaming around 198 from Publius to
Lucius was surely for reasons of propaganda in the course of the Antonine. So something positive.
But why did they "take away" the
Lucius from
Geta again?
Was it
Geta's will to get
his old first name again to distance himself? Around 200/202 he was only 11-13 years young.
His father surely wanted the renaming from Publius to
Lucius. Why should
his father accept the wishes of an 11 year old brat who wanted to have
his old first name again?
Was it the will of
Septimius Severus to use again the birth name of
Geta? Did he want to demote
his younger son?
Had something happened?
Whereever i
search - I read everywhere only that
Geta briefly held the first name "
Lucius". But nowhere why he
had it only briefly. But something serious must have happened.
His father certainly didn't just change
his name to
Lucius - something must have happened to make
Severus reverse this step. Does anyone know why? Thanks.