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Message:: [QUOTE="GinoLR, post: 7999614, member: 128351"]Elagabalus was not only "Pontifex Maximus" (head of the Roman religion), he was also "Summus Sacerdos", the "High Priest", head of the religion of Elagabal, the Syrian Sun-God. Oriental religions had high priests, Judaism for example, when the Jerusalem Temple was still standing. When this emperor was still a child and was called Varius Avitus Bassianus, he lived in Emesa (Homs, Syria) and had been made high priest of the Sun-God Elaiagabal or Elagabal, "God of the Mountain" (Aramaic el = god and gabal = mountain). When he was proclaimed son of Caracalla and legitimate heir to the Empire, he changed his name for Antoninus Pius and moved to Rome, but his faith was strong and the most important for him was his high priesthood of Elagabal ! Consequently he transported the sacred baetyl (a Black Stone) of Elagabal to Rome, put it in a temple on the Palatine and made its cult a new official religion of Rome, besides the traditional one. On this coin the emperor is wearing the ritual robe of the Syrian priests. It is not a Roman costume at all. He should also be wearing some sort of tiara but on the coin he is laureate. Syrian priest robes = summus sacerdos; head laureate = Aug(ustus).There is a knot on his belly that maybe corresponds to the ritual belt you can see on this sculpture of Palmyra priests found in the temple of Nebo (Palmyra Archaeological Museum):[ATTACH=full]1387811[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]