The Temple of El-Gabal

244, Lot: 345. Estimate $100. Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Seleucis and Pieria. Emesa. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (28mm, 20.87 g, 12h). Dated SE 528 (AD 216/7). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Baetyl of El-Gabal, flanked by parasols, within hexastyle temple; crescent in pediment, HKΦ (date) in exergue. BMC 16. Fine, porous brown surfaces.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

“The temple of Emesa, rising high, glistens in the first rays of the sun, the city spreads over wide fields, her towers reaching for the sky. Citizens with well-ordered, active lives worship the flaming Sun. Higher than the Lebanon peaks, green with opulent cedar, the temple of Emesa jealously competes, boasting of its tall triangular top.”

Avienus, Descriptio Orbis Terrae 1083ff