Ira and Larry Goldberg Auctioneers
Auction 128 28-30 Jun 2022
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Marcus Aurelius. Æ 28 mm (19.91 g), AD 161-180. Ake-Ptolemaïs in Phoenicia. IMP CAES M AVR AN AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Marcus Aurelius right. Reverse: COL PTOL, Radiate and draped bust of male deity (Ba'al of Carmel?) right; before, torch. Kadman 111; Sofaer 145; Mabbott 2702; RPC IV.3 6877. A fantastic coin, perfectly centered with a marvelous reverse. Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $5,000 - UP
The uncertain deity on the reverse of this coin is sometimes identified with the local Ba'al ("Lord") of Mount Carmel. This Ba'al was an old Semitic storm god who was regularly treated as a form of Zeus or Jupiter Heliopolitanus by the Greeks and Romans. According to the Biblical book of 1 Kings (18:20–39) Mount Carmel was the scene of a famous duel between the priests of Ba'al and the Israelite Prophet Elijah in the ninth century BC. Elijah, seeking to end the worship of Ba'al in the Kingdom of Israel offered a challenge to the priests of the god: Both he and they would choose a sacrificial bull and prepare an altar on the top of Mount Carmel, but neither would light their respective altars. Instead, they would pray for them to be lit through divine intervention. While the priests of Ba'al spent all day praying and crying out to their god, Elijah built an altar from twelve stones, dug a trench around it and doused it and the sacrificial victim with three jars of water. There was no response from Ba'al to the prayers of his worshippers, but when Elijah asked Yahweh to accept his sacrifice, fire was said to have poured down from heaven to consume the victim, the altar, and the water in the trench. In the aftermath, all 450 of the priests of Ba'al were killed. Nevertheless, despite this incredible setback to the worship of Ba'al on Mount Carmel, his cult survived well into the Roman imperial period. The possible representation of the Ba'al of Mount Carmel on this coin may have had a dual function-to advertise a prominent cult center near Akko-Ptolemais and to associate the city with a local deity of great age. Under the Antonine emperors it was popular for many cities of the Near East to use their coinage to emphasize their antiquity and trace their origins to famous founders.
Abraham and Marian Sofaer Collection From the Abraham and Marian Sofaer Collection.
The uncertain deity on the reverse of this coin is sometimes identified with the local Ba'al ("Lord") of Mount Carmel. This Ba'al was an old Semitic storm god who was regularly treated as a form of Zeus or Jupiter Heliopolitanus by the Greeks and Romans. According to the Biblical book of 1 Kings (18:20–39) Mount Carmel was the scene of a famous duel between the priests of Ba'al and the Israelite Prophet Elijah in the ninth century BC. Elijah, seeking to end the worship of Ba'al in the Kingdom of Israel offered a challenge to the priests of the god: Both he and they would choose a sacrificial bull and prepare an altar on the top of Mount Carmel, but neither would light their respective altars. Instead, they would pray for them to be lit through divine intervention. While the priests of Ba'al spent all day praying and crying out to their god, Elijah built an altar from twelve stones, dug a trench around it and doused it and the sacrificial victim with three jars of water. There was no response from Ba'al to the prayers of his worshippers, but when Elijah asked Yahweh to accept his sacrifice, fire was said to have poured down from heaven to consume the victim, the altar, and the water in the trench. In the aftermath, all 450 of the priests of Ba'al were killed. Nevertheless, despite this incredible setback to the worship of Ba'al on Mount Carmel, his cult survived well into the Roman imperial period. The possible representation of the Ba'al of Mount Carmel on this coin may have had a dual function-to advertise a prominent cult center near Akko-Ptolemais and to associate the city with a local deity of great age. Under the Antonine emperors it was popular for many cities of the Near East to use their coinage to emphasize their antiquity and trace their origins to famous founders.
Abraham and Marian Sofaer Collection From the Abraham and Marian Sofaer Collection.