Geta Caesar, AE 26, 9.59g, 7h,
centration dimples on both sides, recently acquired via
eBay:
L.CEPTIM.GETAC.K[AI], bare-headed
bust r., clothing uncertain, same
obverse die as RG pl. 80.23.
NIK - A - IEWN,
Hercules standing r., resting r. hand on club behind him, holding apples of the
Hesperides (?) in l. hand before him, lionskin hanging down from l. shoulder; on r., tree in which dead
serpent.
Worn and corroded, details of apples in hand and
snake in tree uncertain.
According to H.
Voegtli, Bilder der Heldenepen, p. 42, this is the commonest coin
type showing Hercules' procurement of the apples of the
Hesperides, one of
his twelve labors, but it was not previously attested at Nicaea.
Voegtli knew the
type at
Alinda, Amorion, Kotiaeion,
Pautalia, Perinthos, Tarsos, Temenothyrai, and
Tomis, plus other variants of the
type at
Alexandria,
Pergamon, and Sebastopolis.
RG 512, pl. 80.19, has
Hercules slaying the
Hydra for
Geta at Nicaea with the same early
praenomen L.
For
Caracalla Augustus at Nicaea, RG pl. 78 shows five labors of
Hercules types, namely Stymphalian
birds, Anteus, Cerynian
hind, Cretan
bull, and horses of Diomedes.
Some or all of these probably show a youthful
portrait of
Caracalla and belong to the same issue as the labors
types of
Geta, but unfortunately RG illustrates none of the obverses, so obscuring the chronology.
No labors of
Hercules types listed for
Septimius Severus at Nicaea, but for
Julia Domna RG pl. 76 has
1.
Hercules slaying the
Hydra, facing l. instead of r. as in Geta's
type, and
2.
Hercules bringing down the Cerynian
hind, from the same
rev. die as the corresponding coin of
Caracalla.