72, Lot: 78. Estimate $200. Sold for $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARABIA PETRAEA, Dium. Geta, as Caesar. 198-209 AD. Æ 23mm (8.50 gm). Dated year 271 [Pompeian Era] (207/8 AD). Bare-headed, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Zeus-Heliopolites (Hadad) standing facing, holding eagle-tipped sceptre and Nike; recumbent bulls at feet at either side. Spijkerman 8; Rosenberger 7; cf. SNG ANS 1281 (year 269 [206 AD]). VF, olive patina with slight earthen encrustation.

The figure of Zeus-Heliopolites (Hadad) represents the syncretic blending of many deities with shared attributes, which was a feature common in the Greco-Roman world. Originally, Hadad was ancient good of storms, of Semitic origin, and worshiped in Babylonia and Assyria. According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, he was responsible for the great flood that overwhelmed the world. In ancient Palestine he became conflated with Baal, as evidenced by the bulls. Upon the arrival of the Macedonians, this ancienty deity was incorporated with the characteristics of Zeus; the eagle-tipped sceptre and the Nike echo the attributes of the king of the Olympians. In this way then, the blending of many disparate cultures which is a characteristic of Greco-Roman culture is ably represented.