It
still seemed that in the years 198-202 the
IVSTITIA type had been used only on new-style
Eastern denarii, not at
Rome. But in 1990 the British Museum acquired a
sestertius of
Caracalla, obviously struck at
Rome, with the
IVSTITIA rev. type and an
obv. legend of 199,
IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS
AVG,
see scan from plaster casts below! This coin may be slightly
tooled on the
reverse, I have yet to see it in hand, but I have no doubt about its overall authenticity.
The appearance of this
sestertius made me think: I'll bet that the same
type was also struck on
denarii of
Caracalla at the same time, and these Rome-mint
IVSTITIA denarii, not yet attested, will have been the source of Caracalla's new-style Eastern
IVSTITIA denarii, described above, since in its early years the new-style
mint showed little innovation, but merely copied its
types and legends
wholesale from
contemporary Rome-mint coins.
I recently acquired just such a
IVSTITIA denarius of
Caracalla struck at
Rome, surprisingly using a previously unattested
obv. legend,
M AVR ANTO - NINVS
AVG,
see scan below.
I wonder, however, whether in this case the
mint of
Rome might have copied the
type from the new-style Eastern
mint, rather than
vice versa as usual. For Caracalla's
Eastern denarii of this
type seem to belong to 198: the
PONT AVG obv. legend given above was
his first Eastern
legend after
his elevation to
Augustus in January 198, and the ANTON
AVG P TR P
obv. legend should also belong to 198, since it includes TR P and
Caracalla became TR P II on 10 December 198.
At
Rome, however, Caracalla's first
obv. legend as
Augustus was
IMP CAE M AVR ANT
AVG P TR P,
replaced on 10 December 198 by
IMP CAES M AVR ANTON
AVGon
denarii, and the same with ANTONINVS on
aurei, some of the
rev. types showing
PONTIFEX TR P II.
The
IVSTITIA sestertius, however, has the longer variety of the
Roman obv. legend of early 199, and the new Rome-mint
denarius has a variant of that same
legend, omitting the initial
IMP CAES, which seems more likely to belong to 199 than to 198. On present evidence, then, the
IVSTITIA type appeared on
Eastern denarii of
Caracalla in 198, but on Rome-mint
sestertii and
denarii of
Caracalla only early in 199, so
Rome would appear to have copied it from the Eastern coins.