Medallion with Roman Emperor Caracalla

Description Together with 59.1 and 59.2, this piece was discovered in Egypt as part of a hoard that comprised about twenty similar medallions (now dispersed among various museums), eighteen gold ingots, and six hundred gold coins issued by Roman emperors from Severus Alexander (r. 222-235 CE) to Constantius I (r. 293-306 CE). One of the medallions, now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, bears an inscription that possibly reads "Olympic games of the year 274", a date corresponding to 242-243 CE. It is possible that the medallions were intended as prizes to be given out at that event. Alternatively, they may have been issued by Emperor Caracalla (ruled 198-217 CE), who is potrayed on the this medallion in profile, bearing a shield on his shoulder decorated with the image of Nike in a racing-chariot. The back depicts Caracalla's distant predecessor King Alexander of Macedon (r. 336-323 BCE) in short chiton and chlamys (a cloak) hunting a boar. This depiction of a royal hunt was intended to emphasize the prowess that Alexander also showed in battle.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
	Examination	x-ray
2/01/1939	Treatment	other
11/01/1978	Treatment	examined for condition
11/08/1979	Loan Consideration	examined for loan
9/01/2007	Examination	technical study

Exhibitions

• The Search for Alexander. National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. 1980-1983.
• Alexander the Great: Treasures from an Epic Era of Hellenism. Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA), New York. 2004-2005.
• Excursions through the Collection: Portraiture, Adornment, and the Natural World. 2019-2021.

Provenance [Found at Aboukir, Egypt, 1902]; Panayotis Kyticas, Cairo, [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Dikran Kelekian, Constantinople and Paris [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Inscription, Greek] ΒΑCΙΛΕΟC ΑΛΕΧΑΝΔΡΟΥ [Transliteration and Translation] BASILEOS ALEXANDROY; Alexander the King

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters