Sacred Stone of Emesa
Elagabalus. AD 218-222. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.15 g, 1h). Uncertain eastern mint. Struck AD 218-219. ΛNTONINVS PIVS FEL ΛVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / SΛN CT DEO SOLI, ELΛGΛBΛL in exergue, slow quadriga right, bearing the sacred stone of Emesa on which is an eagle, surrounded by four parasols. RIC IV 195; Thirion 360; RSC 268; BMCRE 284-5. Attractively toned, clashed reverse die. Good VF.
Ex Gorny & Mosch 199 (10 October 2011), lot 717.
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.
