Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Nemo, post: 3258304, member: 58462&quot;]<b>[ATTACH=full]856575[/ATTACH] </b></p><p><b>Elagabalus aka Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus aka Varius Avitus Bassianus</b></p><p>O: Laureate bust of Elagabalus, draped, horn. &quot;IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG&quot;</p><p>R: Elagabalus standing left holding patera over altar. Club in left hand, star in right field.&quot;SACRED DEI SOLIS ELAGAB&quot; - RSC 252</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the rare, initial, SACERD DEI SOLIS ELAGABAL type, with the emperor sacrificing left not right, and with the star erroneously behind him rather than before him. The star apparently stood for his sun god, to whom the emperor was depicted sacrificing, and therefore it should have been placed before him, above his patera and the altar.</p><p><br /></p><p>We know that the star behind the emperor was wrong, because on quite a few dies of all four emperor-sacrificing types the star was eradicated from behind the emperor and re-engraved in front of him. Note that on the obverse Elagabalus is still unbearded, confirming the early date (c. summer 221).</p><p><br /></p><p>The normal type, emperor sacrificing right, star before him, was represented by 181 specimens in the Reka Devnia hoard, compared to 3 specimens for this early variety.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in