For the Empress

The legend around Plautilla’s nicely carved portrait reads PLAVTILLAE AUGVSTAE, which means “for Plautilla, the empress”. This tells us more than you would think at first sight.

First of all, Augusta does not exactly mean empress. It is an honorary title which could be given to female relatives of the emperor, such as his wife, if he wanted to give them such a tribute. Plautilla received this title immediately when she married Caracalla in 202. This title also made it possible to strike coins in her honor, such as the one we have here.

It is important to remember that although Plautilla seems to be the face of power on the coin and therefore the authority behind this coin, Caracalla is still the emperor and thus the actual authority behind this coin. These kinds of coins are only symbolically struck in the name of an Augusta.

The -ae-ending tells us this as well, because this is in the dative, which is the third case. It has the function of an indirect object. This means that it was struck for Plautilla. This is a way to express that the person on the obverse is not actually represented as the authority behind the coin, even though it seems that way given that her face is depicted on it.

Portraying Plautilla on the coin was thus a way for Caracalla to express his own power through the face of his wife. Nonetheless, the way Plautilla was depicted may have influenced women in the rest of the empire. One could say that in this way Plautilla had a little bit of power herself. How exactly? Go to the next step and find out!