407, Lot: 308. Estimate $150. Sold for $95. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

COELESYRIA, Heliopolis. Valerian II. Caesar, AD 256-258. Æ (25mm, 10.88 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Three prize crowns, each containing one or two palm fronds; CERT • SACR •/CAP • OEC •/ISE • HEL • in three lines in exergue. Sawaya 788-94 var. (D111/R– [unlisted rev. die]). VF, earthen green patina.

From the François Righetti Collection.

Many cities throughout the eastern portion of the Roman Empire periodically held smaller versions of the four Iselastic Games of Greece (so called because victors in the ceremonies were granted iselasticum, the right to reenter their native cities in triumph following the games) – the Pythian, Olympian, Isthmian, and Nemean. Like the Greek originals, these smaller versions included a number of athletic contests, as well as music and poetry competitions. Often such events were associated with important civic cults of each city. At Heliopolis (modern Baalbek), the site of a massive temple complex dedicated to Jupiter-Zeus-Baal-Hadad, Venus-Aphrodite-Astarte, and Bacchus-Dionysus, these games were known as the Certamina Sacra Capitolia Oecumenica Iselastica Heliopolitana (the “Sacred Capitoline Ecumenical Iselastic Games of Heliopolis”). Here, celebrations were held in honor of Jupiter-Zeus-Baal-Hadad, not only associating this god with his counterpart at Rome, but also the city with the Empire as a whole.