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I am new to the list and I would like to get some information on the ancient religion adopted by the Roman emperor commonly called Elagabalus. I am especially interested in the role of the Stone of Emesa in the religion, if any. My interest was piqued by viewing an antoninianus from this reign with the Stone of Emesa reverse.
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I have rather vague memories of all this and can't find my notes, but E. seems to have conflated the Roman Sol Invictus cult with a local sun-god cult of which he had been a priest. About 10 years ago a book was published by Brill called, if I remember rightly, _The Cult of Sol Invictus_ but as I can't locate it in my bibliography and can't remember the author.... Perhaps some-one else can come up with more details. Good luck, X
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The book mentioned by Prof. X is Halsberghe, G.H. 1972. The Cult of Sol Invictus. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
"Baal" was the name given to Phoenician-Syrian sky and sun gods. The word meant "lord" or "master". Originally, each town in Phoenicia had it's own baal. The Baal of Emesa in Syria was also called Sol Invictus El Gabal, Sol Invictus Elagabal, El Gabal or Elagabalus.
During this time in the Roman Empire, the gods of one part of the Empire would be identified with gods from other parts of the Empire. The worship of Sol Invictus was of Syrian origin. However, the identification with Apollo and the Greek sun god Helios helped the westward spread of the worship of Eastern sun gods. The spread of the Sol Invictus cult in the Empire led to the decline of the original Roman sun god, Sol Indiges.
Sol Invictus was also identified with, but not the same as, Mithras. Mithras was a god of light and truth of Indo-Iranian origin whose cult promised immortality, was restricted to men and was popular with well-to-do Roman merchants and soldiers throughout the Empire. Early Christian writers recorded that this cult practiced a form of baptism and a ceremonial meal and complained that the cult was stealing Christian ideas. Mithratic art shows Sol kneeling before Mithras, sharing a sacred meal and ascending to heaven with him in a chariot. In some inscriptions, the two are linked and addressed as Sol Invictus Mithras.
At Emesa, the priesthood of Sol Invictus Elagabal was hereditary and Julia Domna, the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus, was born into to that family of hereditary priests. After the death of Caracalla and Julia Domna, Julia Maesa, the sister of Domna, schemed and succeeded in having her grandson, Varius Avitus Bassianus, replace Macrinus as Emperor. At the time, Bassianus was the 14 year old hereditary priest of Sol Invictus Elagabal and he probably considered himself to be the reincarnated god El Gabal.
The new Emperor was almost totally preoccupied with his religious duties ( not to mention sex) and, for a short period made "deus invictus Sol Elagabulus" the chief diety of Rome.
At the temple of Emesa, there was a sacred conical black Stone (baetyl), presumably a meteorite, which was associated with the phallus of El Gabal himself and which was the focal point of the faith. The new Emperor had the stone transported to Rome. The god's bird was an eagle (as with Jupiter). Unlike the dignified rituals of traditional Roman religion and the solemn, private and male-only rituals of Mithraism popular with Roman officers and wealthy merchants, the rites of El Gabal were public, very ostentatious and included women, dancing, flutes, cymbals, glittering costumes, and animal sacrifices galore. At Rome, Senators were forced to sit and witness the daily spectacles conducted by the Emperor and high government officials dressed in the garish costumes were forced to participate in the ceremonies. Although popular with the lower classes, the more conservative Romans considered all this very "foreign", "undignified" and "un-Roman".
Elagabulus had two temples built to his god, the first one on the Palatine and the other in the outskirts of Rome. At the Palatine temple, the Emperor enshrined the sacred Stone of Emesa along with the Carthaginian goddess Dea Caelestis as it's "bride". Dea Caelestis had been popularized by Septimius Severus who was of North African origin. Once a year, a midsummer religious procession was held during which the Stone of Emesa, shaded by parasols and accompanied by an eagle was carried on a gold and gem encrusted chariot led by Elagabulus walking backwards in reverence. These are the processions commemorated on some of his coins.
Eventually, the Roman soldiers revolted against their peculiar young Emperor. Elagabulus was murdered, stuffed down a sewer and ended up "sleeping with the fishes" at the bottom of the Tiber. However, the influence of the various Sol Invictus cults still lives on. Following the old adage, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", between 354 and 360 A.D., the Christian Church changed the date of celebration of Christ's birth from the day of Epiphany on January 6 to December 25 (midwinter solstice in the Julian calender) which was still being gleefully celebrated by the population as the birthday of Sol Invictus.