Sebaste, Samaria, in Syria Palęstina (now
Chiemrum). -- A city of very great antiquity,
situate on the mountain Samaria. After becoming
subject in succession to kings of Israel,
to the Assyrians, to Alexander the Great, to
the Ptolemies, and to the Jews, it was augmented
by Herod the Great, and called by him
Sebaste in honour of Augustus (about the year
26 B.C.). Its imperial coins do not, however,
commence before the reign of Nero ; and
afterwards appear only under Domitian,
Commodus, and Caracalla. It was not until
the reign of Septimus Severus that Sebaste, (or Samaria) was made a Roman colony ; on which occasion it took from that Emperor the names
of Lucia Septimia ; and the colonists, out of
gratitude to the founder of their privileges,
struck on their coins the heads of Severus's
family -- namely, Julia Domna, Caracalla, and
Geta, with the inscription COL. CEBACTE, and on
some others COLonia Lucia SEPtimia. No later
medals of this colony than these are extant. --
The imperials of Domitian and of Commodus
are bilingual Greek and Latin. -- The colonial
imperial have als Latin inscriptions on the
obverse, and Greek on the reverse.
Vaillant gives the two following types of this
colony from coins of the greatest rarity, viz. :--
1. -- On a second and third brass of Julia the
empress of Severus, three figures standing within
a temple of four columns, accompanied by the
legend of COL. CEBACTE, Colonia Sebaste.
[The middle figure of this group is that of
Jupiter, whose temple it appears to be.]
2. -- On second brass of the same empress, a
figure in military garments standing, is crowned
by Victory ; on the other side stands a woman,
clothed in the stola, wearing towers on her
head, her right hand extended towards the
centre figure, and her left hand holding a
cornucopia.
[The colonists of Sebaste here dedicate to
Julia Domna, the wife of their founder, a medal
on which his effigy, taken perhaps from a statue
erected in their forum, is exhibited, crowned by
Victory in presence of the Genius of their city,
in memory of Severus's splendid exploits against
the Parthians, Adiabenians, and Arabians.
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