IMAGES OF ELAGABALUS Near Fine

Faint creasing to wraps at corners. ; Isbn: 9090236791 Text in English; summary in Dutch. ; Proefschrift (Diss. ) ; 339 pages; Elagabalus (218-222 AB) is one of the most peculiar emperors to have occupied the Roman throne. During his short reign, this remarkable ruler carried through some unprecedented reforms in Roman state religion. He put Elagabal, the sun god of the Syrian town of Emesa, at the head of the Roman pantheon and presented himself as the god's high priest on coins and in inscriptions. In March 222 AD, Elagabalus was killed by praetorians, His memory was condemned by the senate, his images destroyed.Images of Elagabalus attempts to reconstruct and explain the events of the period, in partuclar the elevation of Elagabal to supreme Roman deity. Consequently, it looks at the different images of the priest-emperor which have been generated throughout the ages; first by the imperial administration itself, then by ancient and Byzantine authors, and finally by scholars, literary authors and artists from the Renaissance up to the present.