JUDAEA. Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem). Elagabalus, 218-222. AE (Bronze, 23 mm, 8.00 g, 12 h). IM C M A ANTONIN Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Elagabalus to right. Rev. COL A C C P F Facing quadriga carrying the baetyl of El-Gabal decorated with an eagle; in exergue, branch. BMC -. Kadman, Aelia -. Meshorer, Aelia -. RPC VI online 9038.1 (this coin). Samel -. Shoshana II 20333 var. (differing legends). SNG ANS -. Sofaer -. Apparently unique. Slightly rough and with minor areas of weakness and light deposits, otherwise, very fine.



Few reverses illustrate the changing religious language of imperial power more vividly than this issue from Aelia Capitolina. The colony, founded by Hadrian on the site of Jerusalem and named in part for Jupiter Capitolinus, here places the sacred stone of El-Gabal, the Syrian god of the emperor’s native Emesa, at the center of its coinage, carried ceremonially in a quadriga. The contrast is striking: less than a century after Jerusalem had been recast as a Roman colonial city under the sign of Jupiter, its mint now adopted the most distinctive religious image associated with Elagabalus himself. The type should not, however, be taken as proof of a local cult of El-Gabal, but rather as an expression of the city’s participation in the emperor’s wider religious and dynastic imagery.