Elagabalus Invincible Priest Emperor

In contrast to the previous lot, struck early in his reign and before he had shown his true colours, this stunning aureus displays all the eastern religious imagery which came to prominence on the coinage of his later years. His religious zeal and wanton disregard for the ancient customs and traditions of Rome has come to characterise his reign and led eventually to his demise at the hands of the Praetorian Guard after his grandmother Julia Maesa diverted their support to his cousin Severus Alexander.

Elagabalus was the hereditary High Priest of the Sun God El-Gabal, a role which he brought with him to Rome from his hometown of Emesa in Syria, and which he appears to have taken far more seriously than his position as emperor. Many types of Elagabalus show the Black Stone of Emesa being carried into Rome, and legends include the title ELAGABAL, the Romanised name for the Sun God and from where we draw the name Elagabalus.

The reverse of this coin shows the Emperor sacrificing at an altar and with a star in the left field, representing Elagabal as Deus Sol Invictus, while the obverse features a portrait of the emperor laureate and with a ‘horn’ protruding from his forehead. Mattingly and Sydenham suggested that the horn represents rays of sun emanating from the Emperor’s head, thus showing his divine patronage, and liken its use to other instances in history, such as the horn of Ammon that is present on the coinage of Alexander the Great and his successors. However, more recent scholarship has suggested that the horn in question is in fact symbolic of his depraved religious practices, and perhaps deliberately intended to antagonise Roman sensibilities. INVICTVS SACERDOS AVG - Invictus sacerdos Augusti: Invincible priest emperor.