Knidos (AD 198-217) AE 32 - Caracalla & Plautilla

Caracalla, with Plautilla, 198-217 AD. AE32 (18.18g, 6h). Confronted busts of Caracalla right, laureate, draped, and cuirassed, and Plautilla left, draped / Praxitiles’ Cnidian Aphrodite, holding drapery that falls behind amphora, standing right, facing Asclepius standing left, leaning on serpent-entwined staff. VF, light, even roughness. Rare. Group CEM; ex Mallinson Coll. (Spink 39, 12/1984), lot 20.

Because of the city’s connection with Aphrodite, in the fourth century BC, Knidos acquired a cult-statue of the goddess by the sculptor Praxitiles. After it was rejected by the citizens of Kos (for whom it had been commissioned) because it showed Aphrodite nude for the first time, Knidos purchased the statue, erecting it in an open air temple so that it could be viewed from all angles. As a result, it became a popular tourist attraction and the subject of numerous tales of all types.