Transport of the Baetyl of El-Gabal to Rome

267, Lot: 457. Estimate $150. Sold for $260. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Elagabalus. AD 218-222. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.13 g, 6h). Eastern mint. Struck AD 218-219. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Slow quadriga right, bearing the sacred Stone of Emesa upon which is an eagle, surrounded by four sacred parasols. RIC IV 195; RSC 268. Fine, toned.

At the age of fourteen, Varius Avitus Bassianus (Elagabalus) inherited the office of high priest of the sun-god El-Gabal at Emesa in Syria. The cult of his sun god was represented by a sacred stone (or baetyl), and in AD 219 when he moved from Emesa to Rome, he took this stone, probably a meteorite, with him. This coin type commemorates the event.