New Julia Soaemias Sestertius - VENUS CAELESTIS

Here comes my first arrival of this year. The flan is a little short, but I find that the quality of the portrait is hard to beat for a Sestertius of this Empress:



IVLIA SOAEMIAS AVG – Bust right, wearing paludamentum, stephane on head
VENVS CAELESTIS S C – Venus seated left on throne, holding long sceptre and showing apple, child at her feet.
Sestertius, Rome AD 221
30 mm, 17,77 g
RIC 406, Cohen 18, BMCRE 378, Sear 7725, Banti 5 (30 specimens)



Julia Soaemias, mother of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus III, who would go down into history as Elagabalus, was described as a voluptuous and promiscuous woman by the ancient sources.

Venus Caelestis was a lunar fertility goddess of punic origin, known to the Phoenicians as Astarte and the Assyrians and Babylonians as Isthar. She was married to the sun god Heliogabalus in a ceremony that paralleled the wedding of the "false Antoninus" to Annia Faustina in June or July of 221, which was arranged by Julia Soaemias´ mother Julia Maesa in order to stabilize her grandson´s bizarre regime after he was divorced from the Vestal virgin Aquilia Severa.
When he divorced Annia Faustina and re-married Aquilia Severa in late 221, Elagabalus did however not see any reason to divorce his deity from Venus Caelestis.


Sestertius of Elagabalus


Sestertius of Julia Maesa


Julia Soaemias shared her son´s fate on March 11, 222, when her beheaded, nude body was dragged through the streets of Rome and tossed into the Tiber by the pretorian guards and the roman plebs.

I do not have coins of any of the three wives of Elagabalus yet - their Sestertii cost more than my budget for roman empresses allows.

Please show your Sestertii or any other interesting coins of this dysfunctional family!

 

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That is a truly gorgeous portrait. Fantastic.

 

What a winsome portrait!!

 

Wow, you've got everything that's important on that obverse, portrait and last name! Nice! It's as if the person striking the coin looked at the flan and intentionally lined it up.

 

Lovely coin!! I only have denarii and provincial issues of this empress. Here's the silver (far more common) version of your sestertius:

 

+1

 

Really spectacular - that's the kind of coin that drew me to ancients in the first place.

 

Thanks everybody!

Here is my old Soaemias . I think the OP coin is a vast improvement

 

Indeed a great improvement , lovely portrait, congrats Julius.

Have a sestertius of her sister Julia Mamae also with Venus on the reverse. She shared the same destiny as Julia Soaemias. Killed by their own soldiers together with her son emperor Severus Alexander in 235 AD

 

JULIA SOAEMIAS
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: IVLIA SOAEMIAS AVG, draped bust right
REVERSE: VENVS CAELESTIS, Venus seated left, holding scepter, extending her hand to Cupid standing before her
Struck at Rome, 218-222 AD
2.96g, 20mm
RIC 243

 

JG, nice new pick up, congrats.

Doug