Æ18 - Caracalla ΑΥΡ ΚΑΡΡΗ Μ

Carrhae had been notorious to Roman audiences for centuries before this coin was struck — it was the site of Crassus's catastrophic defeat against the Parthians in 53 BC, where some 20,000 legionaries died and the captured standards haunted Roman pride for decades. Caracalla visited the city in 217 AD and was assassinated there on the road to the temple of the moon god, killed by a soldier while stopping to urinate. The city's bronze coinage under his reign is therefore among the last material issued in his name before that abrupt end.