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| Classical Numismatic Group > Electronic Auction 172 | Auction date: 5 September 2007 |
| Lot number: 114 | |
| Lot description: Roman Provincial SYRIA, Coele-Syria. Heliopolis. Otacilia Severa. Augusta, AD 244-249. Æ 28mm (15.09 g). Diademed and draped bust right, crescent at shoulders / Propylaeum (entrance) of the temple of Zeus-Heliopolites; a flight of steps with a pedestal at each end leads to a portico of twelve columns with a tower at each end, cypress tree beneath central arch. BMC Galatia p. 293, 23; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG München -. VF, dark greenish-brown patina, some light roughness. From The John A. Seeger Collection. The sanctuary of Heliopolis (modern Baalbek) was the most massive religious sanctuary of the Greco-Roman world. It was actually a complex with four distinct temples and shrines, all dedicated to syncretistic Roman-Semitic deities- Hadad / Jupiter, Atargatis / Venus, Simios / Mercury and Adonis / Bacchus. Baalbek does not appear to have been a significant settlement before the time of Alexander, and the major construction period began under Augustus in the last decade BC. The Great Court surrounding the temple complex was probably completed under Trajan. The 60 foot tall columns of the Jupiter temple were the largest ever erected in a classical temple. Archaeologists have used the coinage of the city, which began under Septimius Severus, to guide the reconstruction of this massive structure. Estimate: $150 |  |
