Elagabalus - Roman Emperor: 218-222 A.D. -
Fourrée Silver Denarius 18mm (2.7 grams) Rome mint: 222 A.D. Reference: RIC 56b,
S 7501, C 1 IMPANTONINVSPIVSAVG - Laureate, draped bust right.
ABVNDANTIAAVG - Abundantia standing left, puring out cornucopia; star in left
field.
You are bidding on the exact
item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime
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A fourrée is a
coin, most often a
counterfeit, that is made from a base metal core that has been plated with a
precious metal to look like its solid metal counter part. The term is normally
applied to ancient silver plated coins such as the
Roman
denarius
and
Greek
drachma, but the term is also applied to other plated coins.
Cicero mentions that
M. Marius Gratidianus, a
praetor
during the 80s BC, was widely praised for developing tests to detect false
coins, and removing them from circulation. Gratidianus was killed under
Sulla, who introduced his own anti-forgery law (lex Cornelia de falsis),
that reintroduced serrated edges on precious metal coins, an anticounterfeiting
measure that had been tried earlier. Serrated denarii, or serrati, which
featured about 20 notched chisel mark on the edge of the coin, were produced to
demonstrate the integrity of the coin. This effort was in vain, as examples of
fourrée serrati attest.
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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