Emesa in Syria, 218-222 AD., Elagabalus, Æ15, Lindgren III 1181.
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Emesa in Syria, Elagabalus, 218-222AD.,
Æ15 (14-15 mm / 3,12 g),
Obv.: [AYT] - ANΩNI[NOC..] , radiate, draped bust of Elagabalus r.
Rev.: MHT-P-[OÎ IMH CO] or similar , radiate bust of Helios right.
Lindgren III 1181 ; cf. BMC Galatia, pg. 238, 8 ; Mio. S. VIII, 158, 168 .
Rare
Emesa, today Homs (Arabic: Øمص, transliteration: Ḥimá¹£, anciently called "Emese", or "La Chamelle" during the Crusades) is a western city in Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is 450 m above sea level, and is located 160 km away from Damascus and 190 km away from Aleppo. It is located on the Orontes river. It is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean Sea coast. The city dates back to 2300 BC.
In Roman times it was known as Emesa. The famous Crac des Chevaliers is built on the mountain overlooking the Homs Gap. It is also home to the Tomb of Khalid bin Walid, a famous and celebrated Arab Muslim Warrior. The 2002 population estimate of the city is 1,033,000.
Excavations at Homs citadel by a joint Syrian-British team have revealed ceramic vessels retrieved from just above bed-rock at the base of the south-east side of the tell (hill), which indicate that the earliest settlement at the site dates back to around 2300 BC. However, the narrowness of the archaeological areas that are safe to excavate preclude any chance of reaching these lower levels by coming down from the top of the tell, given its height of 30 m.
The history of the Homs as a metropolis (city) remains obscure until the times of the Seleucid Empire, when it was founded after the death of Alexander the Great. Ancient Hemesa, in the Seleucid district of Apamea, was devoted to the worship of El-Gabal (also known as Baal), the sun god, of whose great temple the emperor Elagabalus was originally a priest (A.D. 218). As a center of native influences it was overawed by the Seleucid foundation of Apamea. During this period Sampsiceramus or Shams'alkeram, an Aramaic chieftain reigned over Hemesa (Emesa) and Rasten (Arethusa). In 64 BC Sampsiceramus killed Antiochus XIII, the last Seleucid king, at the behest of Pompey the Great. During this period the Hellenistic culture flourished, however the Aramaic language prevailed throughout the eastern regions as it was the language of the natives.
Emesa had a temple to the Syrian sun god El-Gabal (Aramaic), also called Elagabalus (Latin) and Heliogabalus (Greek). During Roman times Emesa was ruled by its local dynasty of priest-kings (see Royal Family of Emesa). It was the birthplace of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known as Elagabalus, who was a hereditary priest of his namesake deity and succeeded his cousin Caracalla in 218. Emesa was also Roman Emperor Aurelian's headquarter during his campaign against Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. Caracalla made it a Roman colony (the colonia status being the highest urban status in the Roman Empire), and later it became the capital of a small province, Phoenicia Libanesia or ad Libanum.
After the division of the Roman empire in 395 AD, Emesa remained part of the Byzantine Christian empire until the forces of Rashidun Caliphate captured Emesa in March 636 AD, and they renamed it Homs. Homs became an administrative/military center (jund) under the first under Rashiduns and then under Ummayads. With the fall of the Ummayads the city gradually lost its importance it also suffered two destructive earthquakes in the 12th century. After the Ummayads it passed to the hands of the Abbasides, Hamadanites, Fatimid, Seljuks, Ayoubids, and Mamluks. It also fell briefly to the Crusaders and the Mongols. In 1516 it passed into Ottoman hands, where it remained as a capital of a sanjak in the wilayah of Damascus until the creation of the modern state of Syria after World War I.
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