Geta Bust Statuette Roman Empire Hot Cast Lost Wax Casting “Cire Perdue” with Oxidized Green Patina Museum Reproduction SB0005

Geta (7 March 189 –19 December 211), was a Roman emperor who ruled with his father Septimius Severus and his older brother Caracalla from 209 until his death, when he was murdered on Caracalla’s orders.
When Septimius Severus died in Eboracum in early 211, Caracalla and Geta were proclaimed joint emperors and returned to Rome.
Their joint rule was a failure. Later sources speculated that the brothers wished to split the empire in two halves. By the end of 211, the situation had become unbearable. Caracalla tried unsuccessfully to murder Geta during the festival of Saturnalia. Finally, on the 19th of December, Caracalla had his mother arrange a peace meeting with his brother in his mother’s apartments, and then had him murdered in her arms by centurions.
Very few marble portraits attributable to Geta survive to date, presumably due to the very thorough damnatio memoriae which resulted in the erasing of his images. However Roman coins with his image are plentiful, and can reflect how his father Septimius Severus and later Geta himself wanted him to be seen by the Roman people (and especially the Roman military).
Images of Geta and his older brother Caracalla cannot be well distinguished until the death of the father. Both sons were supposed to be presented as equally suitable heirs to the throne, showing thus more “depth” to the dynasty.