So, if I may make an imaginative leap all the way back to the head of the thread, does the question become (a) when did Sol and Serapis together get syncretized into the Imperial cultic stew; was it really because of the Emesa sun cult under the Severans? and (b) at what point, did this become hardened into court ceremonial and accoutrement, such as we see for Maximinus? Is that what you're wondering? Pat L.
Well, it does seem that we need to broaden the question a
bit (accepting the need to keep it somewhat focused to make any progress) since it seems that the adoption of this gesture by
Sol occured at the same time as adoption of it by
Serapis and the emperor, although this co-incident timing stills needs some confirmation.
My question about
Julia was really just driven by the fact that we seem to have arrived at the reign of Septimius, and that while Septimius seems to be syncretizing
Sol &
Serapis (although not the first to do so - see
Hadrian with
Serapis Pantheos below), and associating himself with the duo, there also seems to be a notable pantheistic coinage for
Julia, perhaps with some emphasis (the various
Mater legends) on the mother god
Cybele... Magna manus & magna
mater... Just wondering if there's some bigger picture as to what's going on at this time period or specific reign.
To keep a focused track though, it'd be nice to futher pursue the proximate origin (virtusprobi having supplied the longer view) of this gesture as adopted by
Sol. Some specific questions (but not necessarily the best) are:
- Was this gesture by
Sol (and/or
Serapis) adopted under
Septimius Severus, or can it be traced earlier?
- What non-numismatic evidence is there for the earliest adoption of this gesture? (
statues, mosaics, text references, etc)?
- What different representations of
Sol and/or
Serapis without the gesture exist immediately prior to Septimius? (e.g.
Serapis standing with Cerebus - what else?)
- Can we tie the adoption of this gesture and/or image to the cult(s) of
Sol Invictus / Mithraism?
The syncretization of
Sol and
Serapis is in of itself an interesting topic (maybe
part of the move towards widespread monotheism?), but perhaps we should leave that to another time to the extent that the two topics can be separated. Given that
Serapis was already a syncretic god, perhaps he (and the population of
Egypt) is just being "updated" to keep in sync with the shifting
Roman religous beliefs? Certainly as far as
Rome itself was concerned, the emphasis (& segue into Christianity) seems to have been based on
Sol Invictus, with
Serapis playing a much lesser role. Interestingly even on the Festival of
Isis coinage (started by
Diocletian) we also see
radiate gesturing
Serapis as well as in
his traditional form.
What do we know of the
Emesa Sun cult? Is it particularly tied to the Severans? The only factoid I am aware of is the
Emesa stone type of
Elagabalus (is there any evidence for when this assumed meteorite fell?), who's beliefs seem a
bit out of the mainstream of the time (based on
Baal rather than
Helios and/or Mithras?).
And check out that Alexandrian billon of somebody in Numerianus's middle image of Reply #29.
I'm not sure who that is. The closest match on
Coin Archives is for Trebonius Gallus (after Sept.
Severus). Numerianus?
Ben