Geta, Silver Denarius

Geta was officially erased from memory when he was condemned to suffer damnatio memoriae by his brother, Caracalla, in 211 CE. Jealous and paranoid, Caracalla has his brother murdered and "erased from memory" shortly after their father, Septimius Severus, died. Damnatio memoriae involves erasing evidence of those condemned. Geta’s name was erased from inscriptions, his face chiseled out of carvings, and rubbed away from portrait paintings. Ironically, this damatio memoriae serves to make Geta even more intriguing of a figure, surely not what Caracalla wanted to achieve. On the reverse we see a young Geta sacrificing to the gods in his role as Pontifex Maximus, or highest priest of Rome, a role usually filled by the emperor.