Elagabalus - Roman Emperor: 218-222 A.D. -
Bronze 25mm (11.1 grams) Odessos, Thrace mint: 218-222 A.D.
Reference: Sear GIC 3041; B.M.C. 3.139,15
AVT K M AVPHΛI ANTΩNEINOC, laureate head right.
OΔHCCEITΩN, The Great God of Odessus standing left, holding patera and
cornucopia.
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Thracians
populated the area densely by 1200 BC.
Miletians
founded the apoikia (trading colony) of
Odessos
towards the end of the 7th century BC (the earliest Greek archaeological
material is dated 600-575 BC), or, according to
Pseudo-Scymnus, in the time of
Astyages
(here, usually 572-570 BC is suggested), within an earlier Thracian settlement.
The name Odessos, first attested by
Strabo, was
pre-Greek, perhaps of
Carian origin. A member of the Pontic
Pentapolis,
Odessos was a mixed Greco-Thracian community—contact zone between the
Ionians and the
Thracians (Getae,
Crobyzi, Terizi) of the
hinterland.
Excavations at nearby Thracian sites have shown uninterrupted occupation from
the 7th to the 4th century and close commercial relations with the colony. The
Greek alphabet has been applied to inscriptions in
Thracian since at least the 5th century BCE; the Hellenistic city worshipped
a Thracian great god whose cult survived well into the
Roman
period.
Odessos presumably was included in the assessment of the
Delian league of 425 BC. In 339 BC, it was unsuccessfully besieged by
Philip II (priests of the Getae persuaded him to conclude a treaty) but
surrendered to
Alexander the Great in 335 BC, and was later ruled by his
diadochus
Lysimachus,
against whom it rebelled in 313 BC as part of a coalition with other Pontic
cities and the Getae. The Roman city, Odessus, first included into the
Praefectura orae maritimae and then in 15 AD annexed to the province of
Moesia (later
Moesia Inferior), covered 47 hectares in present-day central Varna and
had prominent public baths,
Thermae,
erected in the late 2nd century AD, now the largest Roman remains in Bulgaria
(the building was 100 m wide, 70 m long, and 25 m high) and fourth-largest known
Roman baths in Europe. Major athletic games were held every five years, possibly
attended by
Gordian
III in 238 AD.
Odessus was an early
Christian centre, as testified by ruins of ten early basilicas,[6]
a
monophysite monastery, and indications that one of the
Seventy Disciples,
Ampliatus,
follower of
Saint
Andrew (who, according to the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church legend, preached in the city in 56 AD), served as
bishop there. In 6th-century imperial documents, it was refereed to as "holiest
city," sacratissima civitas. In 442, a peace treaty between
Theodosius II and
Attila was done at Odessus. In 536,
Justinian
I made it the seat of the
Quaestura exercitus ruled by a prefect of Scythia and including
Moesia, Scythia,
Caria, the
Aegean Islands and
Cyprus. The
Jireček
Line, or the approximate linguistic frontier between Latin and Greek
linguistic influence, ran through the Balkans from Odessus to the Adriatic.
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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