Elagabalus - Roman Emperor: 218-222 A.D. -
Silver Denarius 19mm (1.6 grams) Rome mint: 222 A.D.
Reference: RIC 56b, S 7501, C 1
IMPANTONINVSPIVSAVG - Laureate, draped bust right.
ABVNDANTIAAVG - Abundantia standing left, pouring out cornucopia; star in left
field.
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Abundantia was the
Roman goddess of good fortune, abundance and prosperity.
Within
Roman mythology, the figure of Abundantia (also known as
Annona) was considered to be a minor deity: the personification of luck,
abundance and prosperity, and was also the guardian of the cornucopia –
the horn of plenty. It was with this that she distributed food and money. The
main version of the origin of the cornucopia is similar in both the
Greek and the Roman mythology, in which the king of the gods, having
accidentally broken the horn of the mystical goat in play, promised that the
horn would never run empty the fruits of her desire. The horn was then later to
be passed into the keeping of Abundantia.
While there are few temples or signs of worship for Abudantia
to be found within Rome,
she has also been described in the past as 'the beautiful maiden of success',
and as such is largely featured in art. Often portrayed as holding the
cornucopia and sheaves of corn, while allowing the contents to fall to the
ground, Abundantia's form has graced
Roman
coins in ages past.
Abudantia has withstood the tests of time, taking on the form
of the French 'Olde
Dame Habonde';[citation
needed] also known as
Domina Abundia, and Notre Dame d'Abondance,
a beneficial fairy figure found throughout
Teutonic mythology, and poetry of the Middle Ages.[citation
needed] Within texts related to this figure it is said that she
would bestow the gift of plenty and of good fortune to those she visits, and in
modern society is the patron of gamblers – the revered
Lady Fortune.
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.
During his rule, Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions
and sexual taboos. He was married as many as five times and is reported to have
prostituted himself in the imperial palace. Elagabalus replaced
Jupiter, head of the
Roman pantheon, with a new god,
Deus
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.[1]
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."[2]
"The name Elagabalus is branded in history above all others" because of his
"unspeakably disgusting life," wrote
B.G. Niebuhr.[3]
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