#severans

THE SEVERANS AND THE CULT OF SOL INVICTUS

The Priest-King of the temple city of Emesa presided over the Syrian cult of the Sun God, El-Gabal. As seen on the reverses of these 3rd-century bronze coins, the god was worshipped in a large, lavishly-decorated temple, in the form of a large black meteorite belived to have fallen to earth from the sun.

Septimius Severus traveled to Emesa to seek the hand of the priest-king Julius Bassanius’ younger daughter, the princess Julia Domna, in AD 187. The elder daughter, Julia Maesa, accompanied her sister to Rome in AD 193 following Severus’ accession to the imperial throne.

At the age of 14,:Elagabalus, the son Julia Maesa’s daughter, Julia Soaemias, assumed the throne in AD 218, restoring the Severan dynasty after the assassination of Caracalla and the short reign of Macrinus. His name, Elagabalus, identified him with the Emesan sun god, who had already been accepted into the porous Roman pantheon as Sol Invictus in the Republican period.

Elagabalus’ attempted to supplant Jupiter as the chief deity of Rome in favor of going so far as to having the black meteorite transported from Emesa and installed in the a dedicated temple on the Palatine Hill. Attempts to displace the three dieties Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, worshipped in the Capitolium with the Syrian Istarte, Urania, and Elgabal profoundly alienated the Roman senate and people. The drastic religious changes proposed by Elagabalus (and not the lurid sexual slanders later included in the Historia Augusta) probably caused the Praetorian Guard to support the plot, organized by Julia Maesa, to dethrone and assassinate the emperor in AD 221. He was replaced by Alexander Severus, the son of Julia Emaea, sister of Julia Soaemias, who ruled as the last Severan emperor until AD 235.

After the fall of Elagabalus, the meteorite was returned to its temple in Emesa.

In 1824, excavations in the Baths of Caracalla uncovered a mosaic pavement, depicting what are thought to be famous male athletes of the 4th century. They were removed and installed in the Lateran palace, which required cutting and trimming them to fit into the new space. Today they are in the Museo Gregorio Profano of the Musei Vaticani.

SUOVETAURILIA

This altar (AD 2nd c.) stands in front of the Capitolium in the forum of the Mauretanian city of Cuicul (Djemila) The relief on the front of the altar depicts the sacrifice known as the suovetaurilia, which entailed the sacrifice of a pig (sus, but replaced by a cock in this relief), a ram (ovis) and a bull (taurus). The suovetaurilia was a purification ritual (lustratio) celebrated on important occasions.