Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XX 29-30 Oct 2020
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Elagabalus AV Aureus. Rome, AD 220-22. IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right, with 'horn' / INVICTVS SACERDOS AVG, Elagabalus standing left, in long robe to feet and doubly girt at waist, sacrificing out of patera over altar and holding branch in left hand; star in left field. RIC 86b; C. 59; BMCRE p. 562, 209 note; Calicó 2997. 6.45g, 21mm, 6h.
Fleur De Coin. Extremely Rare, likely the finest of the few specimens known, and the only example offered at auction in over 20 years.
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction IV, 30 September 2012, lot 632 (hammer: £38,000);
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 54, 24 March 2010, lot 514;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 31, 26 October 2005, lot 80;
Ex Harlan J. Berk Ltd, Auction 104, 16 September 1998, lot 8.
This stunning aureus displays all the eastern religious imagery which came to prominence on the coinage of Elagabalus' 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 home town 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 a bull's penis - symbolic of his depraved religious practices, and perhaps deliberately intended to antagonise Roman sensibilities.
Fleur De Coin. Extremely Rare, likely the finest of the few specimens known, and the only example offered at auction in over 20 years.
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction IV, 30 September 2012, lot 632 (hammer: £38,000);
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 54, 24 March 2010, lot 514;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 31, 26 October 2005, lot 80;
Ex Harlan J. Berk Ltd, Auction 104, 16 September 1998, lot 8.
This stunning aureus displays all the eastern religious imagery which came to prominence on the coinage of Elagabalus' 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 home town 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 a bull's penis - symbolic of his depraved religious practices, and perhaps deliberately intended to antagonise Roman sensibilities.