Elagabalus Silver Denarius RIC IV Elagabalus 88b

Monetary and Economic Context

The denarius remained the primary silver denomination of the Severan Roman Empire, functioning as the standard unit for military pay, taxation, and interprovincial trade. By the reign of Elagabalus, from AD 218 to 222, the denarius had undergone decades of gradual compositional debasement. Following the reforms of Septimius Severus and the brief introduction of the double denarius or antoninianus under Caracalla, the silver fineness of the denarius hovered between forty and forty-five percent, with an average target weight of approximately 3.0 to 3.2 grams. Caracalla's antoninianus had been suspended during the reign of Macrinus and was only produced in negligible quantities under Elagabalus before being discontinued entirely at Rome. Consequently, the traditional silver denarius bore the immense burden of state fiscal distribution. RIC IV Elagabalus 88b fits directly within this economic environment, struck on typical Severan planchets and intended to circulate alongside millions of earlier imperial silver coins across the provinces.

Production and Mint Organization

Production of RIC IV Elagabalus 88b took place entirely at the principal imperial mint at Rome. Although eastern mints such as Antioch had struck significant quantities of silver coinage for Elagabalus during his initial march toward the capital between AD 218 and 219, production consolidated at Rome once the imperial court established residence. The Rome mint operated through several administrative workshops known as officinae, which divided typological themes across designated production lines. Engravers at Rome were tasked with executing highly detailed imagery, capturing the exotic Eastern vestments of the emperor that departed radically from conventional Roman civic and military attire. Dies were cut by hand into bronze or iron, and blanks were cast and struck hot, leading to normal minor variations in flan thickness, centering, and striking pressure across the surviving corpus.

Obverse Iconography and the Horned Portrait

The obverse of RIC IV Elagabalus 88b features a right-facing bust of Elagabalus, draped and laureate. The crucial typological distinction separating subvariant 88b from related issues such as 88a is the drapery over the bust without defensive cuirassing. Most significantly, portraits of this specific issue regularly feature a horn-like protrusion projecting above the forehead from beneath the laurel wreath. The exact significance of this feature has been debated extensively in numismatic literature. Traditional scholarship described it simply as a horn, symbolizing divine power, divine kingship, or an attribute of the sun god Elagabal. More recent anthropological and iconographic analyses suggest that the horn represents a dried bull's phallus worn as an amulet of priestly potency and fertility during sacred rituals. While some individual dies exhibit a subtle or barely discernible horn, its presence marks the deliberate visual assimilation of the young prince to his foreign sacerdotal office.

Reverse Typology and Religious Symbolism

The reverse design presents an explicitly liturgical scene in honor of the Syrian sun god of Emesa. Elagabalus stands facing left, attired in long, flowing robes described as Syrian priestly vestments, which contrast sharply with the traditional Roman toga. In his right hand, the emperor extends a patera to pour a sacrificial libation over a lighted tripod altar. His left hand holds an upright implement, identified in numismatic catalogues variously as a club, a ceremonial branch, or a ritual wand. Lying on the ground behind or beside the tripod altar is a recumbent sacrificial bull, waiting as an offering to the deity. In the upper left or right field, an astral star is prominently placed. The star signifies both the celestial nature of the solar divinity and the divine protection guiding the imperial house, making the composition an unambiguous proclamation of Syrian religious ascendancy in the capital.

Epigraphy and Legend Analysis

The obverse inscription reads IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, representing Imperator Antoninus Pius Augustus. This legend grounded the young ruler's political legitimacy by emphasizing his official adoption of the prestigious Antonine nomenclature, continuing the dynastic fiction initiated by Septimius Severus and Caracalla. The reverse legend, INVICTVS SACERDOS AVG, translates as Undefeated Priest, Augustus, or The Undefeated Sacerdotal Office of the Emperor. The application of the epithet Invictus to a priestly title was unprecedented on imperial coinage. While Invictus was traditionally reserved for the invincible Sol or for emperors in military contexts, its union with Sacerdos elevated the emperor's personal religious status to absolute supreme authority, subordinating traditional Roman religious institutions to his Emesene priesthood.

Chronology, Variants, and Typological Boundaries

RIC IV Elagabalus 88b is defined by its specific pairing of the draped horned bust with the INVICTVS SACERDOS AVG reverse showing the sacrificing emperor, tripod, bull, and star. While the overarching catalogue scope in Roman Imperial Coinage covers Elagabalus's reign from AD 218 to 222, internal typological and stylistic developments place the issue firmly between AD 220 and 222. The introduction of sacerdotal titles and the prominent priestly horn did not occur immediately upon his accession in AD 218; instead, they appeared following the formal installation of the Black Stone of Elagabal at the newly constructed Elagabalium in Rome. Typologically, RIC 88b must be distinguished from RIC 88a, which features a laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust, as well as RIC 88c, which exhibits an unhorned or differently draped portrait, and RIC 131, which shares a similar reverse design but carries tribunician dating.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Political Reception

Despite its controversial and alien religious imagery, RIC IV Elagabalus 88b circulated as standard legal tender throughout the Roman Empire. Specimens of this type have been documented in coin hoards across Britain, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, the Danube provinces, and North Africa. In hoard contexts alongside earlier Severan and Antonine silver, coins of Elagabalus show wear patterns consistent with regular commercial transit. Following his assassination in March AD 222, the Roman Senate enacted a formal damnatio memoriae against Elagabalus, resulting in the erasure of his name from public monuments and the removal of the Emesene cult stone back to Syria. However, due to the acute logistical and economic costs of demonetizing vast quantities of imperial silver, his coins were not systematically recalled or melted. They remained in general circulation well into the mid-third century AD until displaced by the debased antoniniani of the military emperors.

References

1. Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700. pp. 126-132
2. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. V: Pertinax to Elagabalus. pp. 560-565
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Elagabalus 88b. ric.4.el.88b
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part II: Macrinus to Pupienus. pp. 35-36, no. 88