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LAST year a friend of mine, who is acoin dealer, asked me to
look at 150unidentified ancient coins that he hadin his stock. I
really enjoy identifyingancient coins because one never knowswhat
surprises may lie ahead and thereis a great sense of satisfaction
when aparticularly difficult coin is identified.Moreover, unless
coins are identified theyremain worthless lumps of metal. I was
bringing them to life again, and with150 to identify I was like
a pig in mud!Most of the coins were, as one would
expect, small bronze coins from the 3rd,4th and 5th centuries
AD, and the coinsof Constantine the Great and his sonswere
particularly common. Some werevery rare, but two rather worn
coinscaught my attention. (Figures 1 and 2)They were small bronze
coins mintedin the 7th century in the Syrian city ofHoms. In Arabic
the city is known asḤimṣ, and in ancient times, Emisa orEmesa. The
city had been very much inthe news at the time with
disturbingimages on television showing deadbodies and destroyed
buildings, and thecoins made me think of its long historyand the
diversity of coins that had beenminted there.
In recent years a large proportion of theMuslim population of
Homs had opposedthe government of President Bashar al-Assad, and
many people were killed. Inthe process a large part of the city
wasdemolished. (Figure 3) In May 2014 theopposition forces left the
city followingan agreement with the government.Actually something
similar had occurredin the 9th century, when the inhabitantsof the
city were largely Christian andthe government was Muslim.
Accordingto The New Encyclopaedia Britannica,the city of Emesa “was
taken in 636 by
Homsby Peter E. Lewis
Khaled Ebn El-Walid Mosque. Photo by NouraRaslan. Image
Wikimedia Commons.
Figure 1 – Bronze coin minted at Homs c.688-693 AD. 20 mms
diameter. It is an Arab-Byzantine coin from the early Islamic
period.There is a diagram of it in Figure 16. Figure 3 –
Destruction in the Bab Dreeb area of Homs, 5th April 2012.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Figure 2 – Bronze coin minted at Homs c. 700AD. 16 mms diameter.
It is an early post-reform Islamic coin. There is a diagram of itin
Figure 18.
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the Muslims, who renamed it Ḥimṣ, andthe city’s large Christian
element waseliminated during the rebellion of 855,when the churches
were demolished andthe Christians executed or deported.”There is
nothing new under the sun.(Ecclesiastes 1:9) Anyway, let’s start at
the beginning.
There has been a settlement at Homsfor thousands of years
because it is justeast of a gap in the mountain range thatseparates
the coast from the hinterland.Excavations at the citadel of
Homsshowed evidence of settlement from2300 BC. In ancient times it
was at ajunction of roads from the north and thesouth and from
Palmyra in the east.(Figure 4 - map) Palmyra prosperedbecause
caravans from Asia unloadedtheir goods there. Little is known
about
Figure 4 – Map drawn by the author to show the position of Emesa
(modern Homs).
Figure 5 – Bronze coin of Antoninus Piusminted at Emesa showing
the sun-god on thereverse. 20 mms diameter. (Jean Elsen &
sesFils, Auction 121, Lot 395)
Figure 6 – Bronze coin of Antoninus Piusminted at Emesa showing
an eagle above thestone of Emesa. 25 mms diameter. (Vcoins:Ancient
Imports)
Figure 8 – Bronze coin of Caracalla showinghis mother, Julia
Domna, on the obverse, andthe altar or base for the stone of
Elagabal onthe reverse. The structure has 2 levels with 3figures
under arches on each level. Perhaps thefigures were ancestors of
Julia who was thedaughter of the high priest. 23 mms
diameter.(Vcoins: Moneta Numismatic Services)
Figure 7 – Bronze coin of Caracalla (198-217AD) showing the
temple of Emesa. Notice the“tall triangular top” at the front. 29
mms di-ameter. (Roma Numismatics Ltd, Auction 4,Lot 2313)
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the early history of Emesa, but in thefirst century BC there was
a dynasty ofkings called Sampsigeramus, whichmeans “Shamash has
enlightened”. Sha-mash was the Assyrian sun-god who wasworshipped
at Emesa. Emesa’s inde-pendence came to an end when it
wasincorporated into the Roman province
of Syria during the reign of the Romanemperor Vespasian (69-79
AD).Coins were first minted at Emesa dur-
ing the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161AD) and the coins refer
to the sun-god.One shows his radiate bust (Figure 5)and another
shows the stone of Emesasurmounted by an eagle. (Figure 6)
Thisblack, conical stone was probably ameteorite. It represented
the god Elah-Gabal (also written Elagabal), a namewhich means “God
of the Mountain”. Itis not clear whether the sun-god was
anemanation of Elagabal, or vice versa.Henri Seyrig, a French
numismatist,suggested that Elagabal was the supremeLord or high
god, while the actual sun-god of Emesa was Shamash.
Ya‘akovMeshorer, who was Professor of Numis-matics at the Hebrew
University inJerusalem, considered that Elagabal wasthe sacred
stone, which was the materialembodiment of the sun-god. The Romans
were clever when dealing
with foreign gods: instead of opposingthem or suppressing their
cults theyassimilated them. So the Greek Zeus wasconsidered to be
the same as theirJupiter, and the high god of Emesa wasalso equated
with Jupiter. Such a strategyingratiated the Romans with the
peoplein the provinces. The eagle, which wasassociated with the
stone of Emesa, asseen on the coin in Figure 6, was also thesymbol
of Jupiter. No doubt AntoninusPius was concerned to improve
relationswith subjugated peoples following thedisastrous Second
Jewish Revolt (132-135 AD) and so a great temple was builtat Emesa
during his reign. Avienus, a4th century Latin writer, described
thetemple: “The temple of Emesa, risinghigh, glistens in the first
rays of the sun.. . Higher than the Lebanese peaks greenwith
opulent cedar, the temple of Emesajealously competes, showing off
its talltriangular top.” This temple (Figure 7),the altar or base
for the stone (Figure 8)and the stone with an eagle displayed onthe
front (Figure 9) feature on the coinsof Emesa. After Antoninus Pius
several Roman
emperors minted coins at Emesa. In 215AD Caracalla issued silver
tetradrachms
Figure 9 – Bronze coin of Caracalla showingthe eagle in front of
the stone of Elagabalwith 2 parasols above. 30 mms
diameter.(Baldwin’s Auction 59-60, Lot 761)
Figure 11 – Gold aureus of Elagabalus (218-222 AD) minted at
Emesa showing the stoneof Elagabal in a chariot drawn by 4
horses.The stone is ornamented with an eagle. Sim-ilar coins were
minted in several cities to cel-ebrate its journey to Rome.
(NumismaticaArs Classica, Auction 72, Lot 698)
Figure 10 – Silver tetradrachm of Caracallaminted at Homs
showing an eagle with thesun-god between its legs. 25 mms
diameter.(Vcoins: Vilmar Numismatics)
Figure 12 – A silver drachm of the Sasanianking, Shapur I (241 –
272 AD) showing hisbust on the obverse and a fire altar, flankedby
two attendants, on the reverse. 25 mmsdiameter. (Vcoins: Zuzim)
Figure 13 – Gold aureus of Uranius Antoninus(253-254 AD) minted
at Emesa showing thestone of Elagabal being transported in a
char-iot drawn by 4 horses, as in Figure 11. (Numis-matica Ars
Classica, Auction 54, lot 559)
Figure 14 – Bronze coin of Uranius Antoni-nus minted at Emesa
showing the stone ofElagabal in the temple with the eagle
butwithout a base. 32 mms diameter. (Roma Nu-mismatics Ltd, Auction
7, Lot 914)
Figure 15 – Bronze coin of the Byzantineemperor Constans II
(641-668 AD) minted atConstantinople showing him holding a
longcross and a globe with a cross on top. The large‘m’ on the
reverse is the denomination (40),and below it ‘E’ means the 5th
workshop and ‘II’is the number of years of Constans’ reign (2).
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with his laureate bust on the obverse andan eagle on the
reverse. Between theeagle’s legs there is a bust of the sun-god.
(Figure 10) These tetradrachms aregenerally considered to have been
mintedat Emesa although this is not indicatedon the coin. In their
book, The Syro-Phoenician Tetradrachms and their Fract-ions,Michel
and Karin Prieur suggestedthat the mint was Hatra, an Arab cityin
Mesopotamia, where Shamash wasworshipped. When Caracalla died in
217 AD he
was succeeded by Macrinus who issuedsimilar tetradrachms. But
Caracalla hadbeen popular with the Roman soldiersand when his aunt,
Julia Maesa, whoresided in the family home at Emesa,spread rumours
that her grandson wasthe bastard son of Caracalla, the
soldiersrevolted, killed Macrinus and hailed hergrandson as the new
emperor. He tookthe name of his supposed father, MarcusAurelius
Antoninus, but as he was thehigh-priest of Elagabal at Emesa he
wasgenerally known as Elagabalus. Theproblem was that Elagabalus
was animmature, wilful lad, only 14 years old.Moreover he was
probably homosexual,and his outrageous behaviour as emperorshocked
the people of Rome. The stone ofEmesa was carried in a chariot
drawnby four horses all the way to Rome (Fig-ure 11) and in the
city Elagabalus walkedbackwards facing the stone as was thecustom
of the high-priest in Emesa.Herodian, a contemporary historian,
des-cribed the scene: “Antoninus ran alongin front of the chariot,
but facing back-wards as he ran looking at the god andholding the
bridles of the horses. . . Butto stop him tripping and falling
whilehe was not looking where he was going,lots of sand gleaming
like gold was putdown, and his bodyguard supported himon either
side to make sure he was safeas he ran like this.”The depravity of
the wild teenager was
too much even for the citizens of Rome
and in 222 AD he was murdered andreplaced by his cousin, Severus
Alexan-der, who sent the stone back to Emesa.In 252 AD the Sasanian
king, Shapur I(Figure 12), invaded Syria. He divided hisarmy to
simultaneously attack Antiochand Emesa. Antioch was sacked, but
thepeople of Emesa led by the high priest,Uranius Antoninus,
repelled the invaders.As the Romans were slow in coming totheir
defence Uranius assumed powerin the region. He issued coins in
gold(Figure 13), silver and bronze (Figure 14),but his rule was
replaced by the Romansafter about a year. The reappearanceon his
coins of the chariot carrying the
Figure 16 – Diagram of the coin in Figure 1. On the obverse the
Arabic word to the right of thefigure is the mint name, Ḥimṣ. To
the left is the Greek word, KAΛON (good). On the reverse theGreek
word, EMICHC, means ‘of Emisa’. The Arabic word below the ‘m’ is
ṭayyib (good). The ‘m’is the denomination (40).
Figure 17 – Bronze coin minted at Emesa. 17mms diameter. On the
obverse the Arabic reads,“No god except Allah alone.” On the
reverse, itreads, “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”On the
lowest line on the reverse is the name ofthe mint: Ḥimṣ. (Vcoins:
David Tranbarger)
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stone did not mean that it moved awayfrom the city: it was part
of the cult ofElagabal that the stone was carriedfrom one temple to
another in Emesa,perhaps to reflect the seasons. When the Byzantine
Empire succeeded
the Roman Empire in about 500 ADEmesa became an important
Christiancentre. During the 3rd century religiousthinking in the
Roman Empire began totend towards monotheism, as Michel
Prieur explains: “Not only was Christi-anity part of this trend,
but so was thecult of the sun, which expanded withthe introduction
of Sol Invictus underGallienus and Aurelian, and became themain
cult of the empire.” So in the mindsof many early Christians Christ
was
equated with the sun. Eventually, how-ever, the temple of
Elagabal was demol-ished and a church built on the site.
Whathappened to the stone is unknown, butit has been suggested that
it became theblack stone in the Kaaba in Mecca. Emesa was not a
mint used by the
Byzantines. The coins that circulatedthere were minted mostly at
Antioch andConstantinople. (Figure 15) But withthe coming of Islam
in the 7th centuryEmesa again began minting coins. TheMuslim
authorities realized that asudden change in the coinage
mightdestabilize the economy, and initiallythey minted coins that
looked like theByzantine ones but with some Arabicphrases. (Figure
16) This Arab-Byzan-tine coinage was produced at Homsfrom about 682
to 697 AD, when thecaliph ‘Abd al-Malik reformed thecoinage. The
earliest reform types werein gold, silver and bronze and
simplyshowed Arabic sentences. (Figure 17)About the same time Homs
mintedpictorial types with an elephant (Figure18) or a jerboa, a
type of desert rat; butas Islam forbade images of living crea-tures
these were replaced by the aniconiccoinage that persisted in Muslim
coun-tries until modern times. Nowadays thecoins and banknotes
(Figure 19) thatcirculate in Homs are made elsewhere.Sadly almost
nothing exists of ancientEmesa in modern Homs. Even the Byz-antine
church was replaced by a mosque.Most of the ancient necropolis
where thefamous ‘faced helmet’ was discovered in1936 (Figure 20)
was destroyed to makeroom for a sports ground. Fortunatelythe coins
still exist to tell the story ofthe city.
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Figure 18 – Diagram of the coin in Figure 2. On the obverse
there is an elephant. The Arabicwords on the obverse and reverse
are the same as on the coin in Figure 17. All the Arabicwords on
these coins are in the Kufic script.
Figure 19 – Syrian banknote issued in 1997 and again in 2013. It
shows Hafez al-Assad, thefather of the present president, Bashar
al-Assad. Near his right shoulder is a gold dinar fromthe Umayyad
Caliphate (685-750 AD), which was based in Damascus.
Figure 20 – Silver ‘faced helmet’ found in thenecropolis at
Homs. It would have been wornby a high-ranking cavalry officer in
the 1st
century AD. (Image courtesy of Balkancelts)
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