Image: Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Elagabalus looking right

Inscription: IMP(erator) ANTONINVS PIUS AVG(ustus)

Image: Elagabalus standing left, sacrificing over altar; oncoming quadriga in the background carrying an eagle standing front on the betyl from Emesa

Inscription: CONSERVATOR AVG(usti)

The coin presented here does not appear in RIC. One exemplar has been sold during the auction NAC 29, n° 596 (11- 12 May 2005) (the antoninianus presented here), and another exemplar is preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna (Bundesslg. von Münzen, n° 43082).

This antoninianus, probably minted at Rome in 219-220 CE (on the dating, see Baldus, “Das ‘Vorstellungsgemälde’,” p. 470), depicts on the obverse the head of Elagabalus, and on the reverse the emperor offering a sacrifice in front of the quadriga, the chariot drawn by four horses, carrying the god of Emesa to Rome. This issue is an antoninianus, a denomination which was used to pay the soldiers. We can thus imagine that the message conveyed by this type may have been forwarded to the army. First minted under the rule of Caracalla, in 215 CE, the antoninianus was a double denarius. It was in fact one of the emperor’s main economic reforms and it was minted in order to raise the pay of the legions to 675 denarii, and distribute them various bounties. Thus, Caracalla created an issue which contained the double of silver present in the denarius, which by then had been seriously devaluated. In fact, the real value of the antoninianus was only 1,5 denarii.
From the reign of Caracalla onward, as in this case, the obverse of the antoninianus depicted the head of the emperor crowned by the radiate crown. The inscription on the obverse refers to Elagabalus as Antoninus, Pius, and Augustus. The inscription on the reverse refers to the god of Emesa as CONSERVATOR AUGUSTI, or “protector of the emperor,” a role which was usually assigned to Jupiter (see Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus, p. 17; on the rare coins of Elagabalus bearing the legend IOVI CONSERVATORI, see RIC IV/2, Elagabalus, n° 89-91, p. 34; BMCRE V/2, Elagabalus, n° 138-142, p. 550). Clearly the issue celebrates both the fact that the emperor Elagabalus brought his god to Rome, but also the close bond between the young emperor and his god from Emesa, Elagabalus, or the Ba‘al of the Mountain which was venerated in the form of a betyl, a black conical meteorite.

As on other contemporary issues minted in Antioch in the same period (see Denarius depicting the head of Elagabalus and the emperor sacrificing over an altar (220-222 CE)). The coin type presented here should be considered as being at the crossroads between the types stressing on the introduction of the new solar god at Rome and the others highlighting the common priestly status of the emperor. However, the legend CONSERVATOR AUGUSTI on the reverse of the coin makes it clear that it is the personal relationship between Elagabalus and the Syrian solar god which is highlighted. If that type was issued in 219-220 CE, that is shortly after Elagabalus’s arrival at Rome, it is interesting to note that another coin issue, minted in Rome, bearing the same legend, and representing on the reverse a side view of the quadriga transporting the betyl, continued to be produced during the rest of the reign of Elagabalus (this issue is commonly dated from 220-222 CE, see RIC IV/2, Elagabalus, n° 61, 62, 64, 65, p. 32-33; and BMCRE V/2, Elagabalus, n° 197-198, p. 560). As rightly recalled by Martijn Icks, the coin types bearing the legend CONSERVATOR AUGUSTI and representing the betyl on the Roman quadriga show that the Syrian emperor may have wanted, from the moment of his arrival at Rome onwards, to incorporate his “exotic” god into a framework which was typically Roman. This is the case here through the representation of the quadriga, the performance of the sacrifice and the title CONSERVATOR (see Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus, p. 74).