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I believe you got the answer you were looking for. Welcome to CT

 

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Thanks so very much, I'll check them out. Mike.

 

Look for one on Amazon...pretty reasonable in price.

 

Just bought the T3, thank you all very much.

 

@Mikenwuf ...please keep in mind that many of us reading your post do not have the expertise possessed by those who have answered your question...we, (in particular, me) are learning at the same time you are. Ancient coins are just plain fascinating. Thank you for posting and sharing...Spark

 

I encourage you to read up on Elagabalus -- Even if only a cursory look at his Wikipedia page, or 'googled' references to his reign.

As already stated in this thread, he was one weird dude -- His (relatively)short time alive, as an emperor(all teenaged years), and the lead-up to his eventual demise. It makes for a fascinating read.

Before delving into ancient coins, I was like many -- Somewhat familiar with some of the more famous/infamous Roman emperors. It wasn't until I discovered the coinage minted under Elagabalus(and other ancient figures) that I became inspired to learn more about him(and other ancient figures/places).

That is one of the really cool things about ancient coins. They have the ability to inspire one to research the historical references that are attached to them. I mean we(speaking for Americans) all learned about Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln etc. in school, and their histories have numerous references beyond mere coinage.

For some ancient references, there are figures, and even long-lost places that exist primarily (if not only) from found ancient coins, and the information provided on them.

 

"Herodotus" is absolutely right. The link between history and coinage is one of the great things about this hobby. Sometimes you read or learn interesting history and then are able to find a coin that is somehow related. Other times it works the opposite way, you get a coin and then that leads you to read up on some history you didn't know about.

The Elagabalus story is very interesting. Not only from sheer wonder, but as a case in historiography - the study of history itself.

Elagabalus was a foreigner, an outsider. Politically he came from a branch related to the family of the wife of the dead Emperor Septimius Severus. Other members of that family were then (and after) struggling for power, as were people not from that family. So you need to understand him as part of a losing faction and the losers don't write history.

He was also a foreigner culturally. He and his family came from Syria. Though his homeland had been ruled by the Romans for over 250 years when he came to power it was still a very foreign area. His people likely spoke Latin as a third language after Greek and their mother tongue, a local Semitic language like Aramaic. Though on the surface the elite could adopt Roman culture - dress, food, decor, etc. - when required, their own culture was still very different.

Finally, he was a foreigner in religious terms. His religion worshiped a sun god as a supreme deity, though they did not deny the existence of other gods. This is henotheism - between polytheism (many gods) and monotheism (one god). It was quite strange in the early 3rd century, though it was basically normal by the later third century, with Aurelian and Soli Invictus. They saw their sun god as personified in a stone (the baetyl) which was probably a meteorite. Meteorites have been the centre of worship in the Middle East for thousands of years. If you worship the sun and/or stars and then a flaming object crashes to earth of course that object will be held with great reverence. Though it was a symbol to them and not the god itself.

When you study his religion, and similar ancient Middle Eastern religions, many of the weird stories about him make sense. Having gods marry each other was a normal way of uniting and absorbing other religions, tribes and peoples. The Roman way was to kidnap the gods of those they conquered and bring them to a new temple in Rome. The Middle Eastern way was to unite them in marriage.

Where do all our stories about Elagabalus come from? People that were from different political factions, cultures and religions as him. Elagabalus and his people have absolutely no voice today. Angry Romans and shocked Christians wrote everything we have. Furthermore, they were making points. Bad faction - don't give them any power. Bad culture - Rome is for the Romans. Bad religion - stay loyal to ours.

So Elagabalus has come down to us today as a freak, weirdo and loony.

Unlike those Emperors who were truly unstable and bad (even if some stories are exaggerated) like Caligula, Nero, Domitian and Commodus, I truly believe that Elagabalus was simply too different for Rome. You don't need to look to far to see the similar way some immigrants are treated today.

SC

PS It is hard to find good sources that outline this part of the story. There are hints there in the wikipedia entry for Elagabalus, but what first planted this interpretation in my head was a book in French called "Le Haut-Empire romain: les provinces de Mediterranee orientale d'Auguste aux Severes", by Maurice Sartre, 1991. I picked up the 1997 paperback version at the gift shop at the Louvre back in 2006 though it is available online.