ELAGABALUS Philippolis 218AD Ancient Roman Coin SERAPIS Antiquity God i21500

Item: i21500

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Elagabalus – Roman Emperor: 218-222 A.D. –

Bronze 18mm (4.64 grams) Struck in Philippolis in Thrace circa 218-222 A.D.
AVT K M AVP ANTΩNINOC, Laureate head right.
ФIΛIППOПOΛEITΩN, Serapis standing left, raising right hand and holding scepter.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Serapis (Latin spelling, or Sarapis in Greek) was a

syncretic

Hellenistic

–Egyptian

god in

Antiquity

. His most renowned temple was the

Serapeum

of Alexandria.

Under

Ptolemy Soter

, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of

their Hellenic rulers. Ptolemy’s policy was to find a deity that should win the

reverence alike of both groups, despite the curses of the Egyptian priests

against the gods of the previous foreign rulers (i.e

Set

who was lauded by the

Hyksos
).

Alexander the Great

had attempted to use

Amun for this

purpose, but he was more prominent in

Upper

Egypt
, and not as popular with those in

Lower

Egypt
, where the Greeks had stronger influence. The Greeks had little

respect for animal-headed figures, and so a Greek-style

anthromorphic

statue was chosen as the

idol
,

and proclaimed as the equivalent of the highly popular

Apis

.

It was named Aser-hapi (i.e. Osiris-Apis), which became Serapis,

and was said to be Osiris

in full, rather than just his

Ka

(life force).
 

Elagabalus

(pronounced El-uh-GAB-uh–lus, c. 203 – March 11, 222), also known as

Heliogabalus or Marcus

Aurelius Antoninus, was a

Roman

Emperor
of the

Severan dynasty

who reigned from 218 to 222. Born Varius Avitus Bassianus,

he was

Syrian

on his mother’s side, the son of

Julia Soaemias

and

Sextus Varius Marcellus

, and in his early youth he served as a priest of the

god

El-Gabal

at his hometown,

Emesa

. Upon becoming emperor he took the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Augustus, and was called Elagabalus only a long time after his death.

In 217,

the emperor Caracalla

was murdered and replaced by his

Praetorian prefect

, Marcus Opellius

Macrinus
.

Caracalla’s maternal aunt,

Julia

Maesa
, successfully instigated a revolt among the

Third Legion

to have her eldest grandson, Elagabalus, declared as emperor in

his place. Macrinus was defeated on June 8, 218, at the

Battle of Antioch

, upon which Elagabalus, barely fourteen years old,

ascended to the imperial power and began a reign that was marred by infamous

controversies, to put it mildly.

Jupiter

, head of the

Roman pantheon

, with a new god,

Sol Invictus
, and forced leading members of Rome’s government to

participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, which he personally led.

Amidst growing opposition, Elagabalus, only 18 years old, was assassinated

and replaced by his cousin

Alexander Severus

on March 11, 222, in a plot formed by his grandmother,

Julia Maesa, and members of the

Praetorian Guard

. Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries

for eccentricity, decadence, and zealotry which was likely exaggerated by his

successors and political rivals.

This propaganda was passed on and, as a result, he was one of the most reviled

Roman emperors to early historians. For example,

Edward Gibbon

wrote that Elagabalus “abandoned himself to the grossest

pleasures and ungoverned fury.”

“The name Elagabalus is branded in history above all others” because of his

“unspeakably disgusting life,” wrote

B.G. Niebuhr

..