Josephine Carroll-Walden (UQ) ‘Syrian or Roman? Syncretism in the Venus Caelestis Coinage of Julia Soaemias’

In the ancient historiographical tradition, Julia Soaemias and her son, the emperor Elagabalus, were criticised for their Syrian heritage and their devotion to the Emesene sun god, Elagabal. Cassius Dio and the Historia Augusta drew upon stereotypes of eastern licentiousness and immorality in order to portray Julia Soaemias as the opposite of a Roman woman of traditional virtue. I undertook a preliminary study to determine if coinage played a role in creating her negative Syrian image. I discovered that Soaemias’s imperial coinage deviated significantly from the established Roman tradition. Instead of depicting different Roman deities and personifications on the reverse side, the overwhelming majority of her coins were devoted to Venus Caelestis – a goddess who had never before been depicted on imperial coinage. After the assassinations of Elagabalus and Soaemias, Venus Caelestis was never used again on Roman coins. This seminar builds on my earlier research by offering a new approach to the study of Soaemias’s unusual coinage. It investigates especially what roles the Venus Caelestis coinage played in Elagabalus’s religious policies and his self-representation.