Ex Mazzini and Evans Collections
Elagabalus, High Priest of the Sun God at Emesa

Triton XX, Lot: 806. Estimate $30000. Sold for $35000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Elagabalus. AD 218-222. AV Aureus (20mm, 6.59 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 220-222. IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / C–ONSERVATOR AVG, slow quadriga drawing car carrying conical stone of El-Gabal, with eagle on face; star above. RIC IV 61d; Thirion 243; Calicó 2988a; BMCRE 197 var. (arrangement of rev. legend); Biaggi 1283 var. (same); Mazzini 18 (this coin, illustrated). Near EF. Rare and important type.

From the Continental Collection. Ex Vecchi 4 (5 December 1996), lot 283; Giuseppe Mazzini Collection; Sir John Evans Collection (Rollin & Feuardent, 26 May 1909), lot 225.

At the age of fourteen, Varius Avitus Bassianus (better known as Elagabalus or Heliogabalus) inherited the office of high priest of the sun god El-Gabal at Emesa in Syria. The deity was worshipped in the form of a sacred stone, and when Elagabalus was made emperor and journeyed from Emesa to Rome, he took the stone, probably a meteorite, with him. During his reign, the emperor was devoted to promoting the cult of El-Gabal, building a lavish temple on the Palatine Hill to house the stone. For a brief period, the exotic eastern deity nearly came to dominate the Roman Pantheon.

While this issue could possibly commemorate the journey from Emesa to Rome, it more likely refers to the annual transfer of the stone from its principal temple in Rome to its “summer home,” a large and richly decorated temple in the suburbs. Describing the transfer, Herodian (V.6.7) writes:

A six-horse chariot bore the sun god, the horses huge and flawlessly white, with expensive gold fittings and rich ornaments. No one held the reins, and no one rode in the chariot; the vehicle was escorted as if the sun god himself were the charioteer. Heliogabalus ran backward in front of the chariot, facing the god and holding the horses' reins. He made the whole journey in this reverse fashion, looking up into the face of his god.

For a remarkable antoninianus issue that also very likely depicts the same ritual, with Elagabalus standing before the stone in a facing quadriga, see NAC 29, lot 596 = De Arrizabalaga y Prado p. 103, fig. 67.