Emesa, Syria (Homs, Syria)

EMESA (Homs, Syria - 34°44'N, 36°43'E) lies on the Orontes River at a crossroads of three important highways, one of which was Palmyra's path to the sea. Emesa was part of Alexander the Great's conquests and after his death became part of the Seleucid Kingdom. It managed to become independent during the final disintegration of that Kingdom, with King Sampsigeramus I becoming a Roman ally during the first century BC. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) deposed the last Seleucid ruler, Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, in 64 BC and annexed Syria as a Roman province, but the city of Emesa was allowed to remain as a client kingdom. Sometime after 70 AD the last of the client kings was deposed and Emesa was absorbed in the province of Syria.

The city was famous for its devotion to the sun-god, worshiped at Emesa as Elagabal (this deity is known also as Elah-Gabal, Heliogabalus, El-Gabal, Elah-Gebal, Alagabalus, and Eleagabalus- NUMUS prefers Elagabal since that form alone appears on Imperial coins issued from Rome and Antioch by the Emperor Elagabalus. In 187 AD Septimius Severus married Julia Domna, who was the daughter of one of the chief priests of Elagabal, Julius Bassianus. Emesa became exempt from tribute sometime after Severus became Augustus in 193. Emesa figured prominently in the events of roughly the next forty years, known as the Severan period (193-235). It was granted the status of a colony by Severus' son Caracalla. After Caracalla's assassination in 217, Domna's sister Julia Maesa was sent to Emesa with her daughters and her grandsons, Varius Avitus Bassianus (see ELAGABALUS) by Julia Soaemias and Varius Alexianus (see SEVERVS ALEXANDER) by  Julia Mamaea.  She was soon able to unseat the unpopular Macrinus and put her grandson Elagabalus on the throne. He quickly scandalized Rome by, among other things, importing to Rome the conical black stone which Emesa worshiped as Elagabal, "marrying" it to Minerva, and placing it above Jupiter in the Pantheon. The worship of Elagabal at Rome did not outlive Elagabalus (killed 222), and his cousin Severus Alexander, his successor and the last of the Severans, sent it back to Emesa.

Emesa was the site of a usurpation in 253 when Lucius Julius Aurelius Sulpicius Uranius Antoninus proclaimed himself emperor. He met his end in 254, and the city began to be eclipsed by Palmyra, which was very powerful under King Odenathus and his wife Zenobia. When Valerian I was captured by the Persians in May of 260, his son and co-Augustus Gallienus assumed the throne, but was not recognized by Valerian's army which promoted Macrianus and Quietus. Macrianus was killed while moving west to challenge Gallienus, but Quietus remained in Emesa where he was soon besieged and killed by Rome's ally Odenathus. The city struck coins for the usurper Uranius Antoninus, and possibly for Macrianus and Quietus. In addition it had operated a Greek Imperial mint from the time of Antoninus Pius through the usurpation of Uranius Antoninus (typical types were of the conical stone of Elagabal and the altar of the temple of Elagabal). Emesa eventually became a strong Christian center and passed into the Byzantine Empire.

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